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REV. GEO. A. LOFTON, A.M., D.D. 



Cji^i^^eitei^ giCEfejiEg; 



OR, 



TF[E BLACKBOARD MIRROR. 



A SERIES OF 



Illustrates Discussions, Depicting those Peculiar- 
ITIES OF Character which Contribute to the 
Ridicule and Failure, or to the Dig- 
nity and Success, of Mankind. 



A Number of Moral, Practical, and Religious Subjects, 

Presented in an Entirely New and Striking Manner, Illustrated with Over 

Fifty Engravings from the Original 



BLACKBOARD DRAWINGS. 



rOPYRIGHV 

m 1O1B90 ' j 



BY GEORGE A. LOFTON, A.M., D.D. 



"O wad some power the giftie gie us, 
To see oursels as others see us ; 
It wad frae mony a blunder free us, 
And foolish notion." — Burns. 



southwkstern- publishing house, 

NashvilIvE, Tenn. 






Copyrighted 1890, by 

The Southwestern Publishing House. 

All rights reserved. 



^/f 



Notice. — The illustrations appearing in this work are from original drawings, and 
are protected by copyright. Notice is hereby given that persons reproducing them in 
any form are guilty of infringement, and will be prosecuted. 



DEDIGATIOn, 



TO MY FELLOW-BEINGS, OLD OK YOUNG, AEFLICTED WITH 
THE SINS, VANITIES, OR MISFORTUNES OF LIFE ; STRUGGLING AGAINST 
THE TRIALS, CONFLICTS, OR TEMPTATIONS OF THE WORLD ; IN- 
SPIRED BY THE LOFTIER MOTIVES, PURPOSES, AND 
HOPES OF TIME AND ETERNITY, 

This Volume is Dedicated 

BY THE Author. 

(3) 



PUBLISHER'S PREFAGE. 



In presenting this volume to the public we do so 
believing that it fills a place in literature peculiarly 
its own, and that wherever it goes it will be read and 
appreciated by the masses of the people with both 
pleasure and profit to themselves. 

The ancient philosopher wisely enjoined, "Man, 
know thyself; " and the poet has longingly sung, 

"O wad some power the giftie gie us;" 
but the man who invented the looking-glass alone 
gave us the physical means 

" To see oursels as o^Aers see us." 

This book is truly a mirror. It flings back upon us 
the reflections of our own characters and those of our 
neighbors, uncovered and standing side by side, with 
a vividness of revelation and a truth of comparison 
that must help one to correct his own faults and ex- 
ercise a greater charity toward his unfortunate fel- 
lows. 

The subject-matter and illustrations of the work 
compose a series of forty-one character sketches and 
other ilhistrated lectures or blackboard talks deliv- 
ered recently by Rev. G. A. Lofton before crowded 
assemblies on Sunday afternoons. Though delivered 
weekly in the same building, they created a genuine 
sensation which lasted for a full year, with increasing 
intensity from beginning to close. The method em- 
ploj^ed was but the lever in the master-hund, which, 
resting upon the fulcrum of truth, delighted, while it 
(4) 



PUBLISHER S PREFACE. 



raised the masses to a higher x^laiie of observation, 
thought, and knowledge on vital subjects. He chose 
this method of caricaturing and exposing error and 
teaching practical moral and religious truths for the 
benefit of his own congregation, without any expec- 
tation of attracting the general public or milking a 
book. But from the delivery of the first lecture " his 
fame went abroad," and the people, old and young, of 
all sects and creeds, thronged to hear him, so that 
the large auditorium was seldom adequate to seat the 
crowds that came. 

The pictures, we are requested by the author to 
say, are intended to convey the idea, interpret the 
thought, or illustrate the character, extreme or pe- 
culiar as it may be; hence he has executed them 
with a free hand under the full license of the carica- 
turist's art, without reference to strict rules of ana- 
tomical or mathematical precision. They were all 
drawn in colored crayon on a large blackboard to il- 
lustrate the lectures. These drawings were photo- 
graphed and engraved for the book. The author not 
only made the drawing, but, with the exception of 
two Bible scenes" and ''Delirium Tremens'^ conceived 
and designed them to fit the character or thought he 
desired to portray. 

It is seldom we find predominating in the same in- 
dividual the native genius of the orator and the author 
who can tell or write, coupled with that of the artist 
who can jpaint his own ideal conceptions, thus convey- 
ing through the double senses the double impression 
which can never be forgotten. Such a combination, 
however, we have in the author of this work. He is 
an educated gentleman, an eminent minister, a devot- 
ed pastor, and a profound, practical thinker. From 



6 publisher's preface. 

his youth he has been a close observer of every thing 
around him, and the reader has in this volume the 
result of accumulated years of observation from many 
stand-points of life. On the farm, in the school-room, 
in business circles, on the battle-field, around the 
camp-fire, from the pulpit, and in the rounds of pas- 
toral visitations his keen perceptives have caught and 
made a moral diagnosis of every idiosyncrasy and pe- 
culiarity of character passing before him, and with 
his w^onderful scalpel of caricaturing art he has dis- 
sected them before the vv^orld. 

The work enjoys the distinction of being original, 
both in matter and method. It treats practical, every- 
day subjects, as well as moral and religious truths, 
in a manner that is new, unique, and attractive to the 
reader, young or old. Unlike most other works of a 
moral purport, it avoids the stilted and Puritanic 
manner of expression so commonly used, and, on the 
contrary, is brimful of sparkling wit, diverting hu- 
mor, and entertaining anecdotes. 

While the author is a Baptist minister, the book is 
strictly non-sectarian, the discussion of doctrinal dif- 
ferences being entirely without the scope of this 
work. For further substantiation of this fact, and 
indorsement of the work in general, we beg to refer 
the reader to the following " Introduction," by Rev. 
O. P. Fitzgerald, D.D., editor of the Christian Advo- 
cate of l^ashville, Tenn. The Publishers. 



A WORD WITH THE READER. 



The genius for caricature is inborn and inerad- 
icable with some persons. It is God-given, and, like 
every other natural endowment, it is bestowed for a 
good purpose. Like every other good thing, it may 
be perverted to evil uses. Wit is the ally of truth 
as well as the weapon of wickedness. Humor has 
its rightful place in human speech and in literature 
just as truly as pathos, and they are usually found 
close together; the risible muscles and the lachi"ymal 
glands almost touch in the human organism. Many 
of the greatest preachers possess wit and humor in 
a high degree. The sparkling and caustic wit of 
Robert South has brought down his sermons from 
the seventeenth century to this day. He was the mas- 
ter of polished sarcasm, impaling an absurdity on the 
point of an antithesis with a skill never surpassed. 
Spurgeon's wit is no small element of the popularity 
which makes him the first preacher of his genera- 
tion. Beecher's wit was irrepressible and brilliant, 
and did much toward making- the Plymouth pulpit 
in Brooklyn so irresistibly attractive to crowded and 
cultured audiences for so many decades. The same 
quality is found in Talmage in connection with his 
astonishing powers as a word - painter. The wit of 
the unique and indescribable Sam Jones has shaken 

(7) 



8 A WORD WITH THE HEADER. 

the sides of a continent. Even the stately grandeur 
of the great Robert Hall is relieved by flashes of 
satire that are like sunshine tinting mountain-peaks. 
Other great preachers could be named whose preach- 
ing would have been better and whose too rigid the- 
ology might have been softened by a little of the 
humor that makes all the world kin. The Bible itself 
is not wholly destitute of satire; it flames out with 
terrific power in the contest of Elijah with the projoh- 
ets of Baal on Mount Carmel. On rare occasions, 
from the lips even of the loving Jesus, issued words 
of withering sarcasm in dealing with the hypocrites 
of his day. 

Caricature has always been a favorite weapon of 
infidelity. The devil himself is an inveterate cari- 
caturist. If he cannot arrest or destroy a good thing, 
he will caricature it. He caricatured the miracles of 
Moses in EgyjDt. The lying sjoirits of the Old Tes- 
tament caricatured the true prophets of the Lord, 
and in the ^ew Testament we are warned to try the 
spirits by certain infallible tests, lest we believe a lie 
and come into condemnation. 

It is a good thing to wrest this effective weapon 
from the hand of the enemy, and wield it for truth 
and righteousness. The funny pictures no more be- 
long to Satan than the good tunes. The error that 
evades an argument may be punctured by ridicule. 
The weakness that resists persuasion may yield to 
shame. 

Such is the opinion and aim of the author of this 



A WORD WITH THE KEADER. 



work, upon whom God has bestoAved the gift of the 
caricaturist. Some years ago he discovered that he 
possessed an aptitude in this direction, and began to 
illustrate his lectures by blackboard drawings that 
served greatly to enhance their interest and value. 
The expressions of approval from large and delighted 
audiences, and other evidences of the popularity of 
this method of teaching and impressing spiritual and 
ethical truth, led him to think that these lectures 
might, through the printing-press, reach still larger 
audiences and do still greater good. Thus encour- 
aged, by the advice of friends, and hoping to speak 
to the minds and hearts of many who will never hear 
his living voice, he has prepared this volume for the 
press. This is a worthy aspiration, and its fulfill- 
ment will be a rich reward for the labor and pains 
expended by our brother in its preparation. 

The book is not sectarian, partisan, or personal. 
It deals with prevalent follies and weaknesses of men 
and women, both in and out of the Church, in a way 
that is pointed but not bitter, plain without harsh- 
ness, with the touch of satire minus the virus of mal- 
ice or cynicism. It will be read with avidity. The 
pictures will strike the eye, while the text will en- 
gage the thought of all sorts of readers. Every 
member of the family will find something here to in- 
struct and to entertain. The illustrations will rivet 
attention, and the letter-press will reward that atten- 
tion with lessons that will be a safeguard against 
folly and an incentive to goodness. 



10 A WORD WITH THE EEADER. 

"Wishing well to every well-meant effort to use the 
press for the advancement of truth, the repression of 
error, and the promotion of the welfare of humanity, 
I have examined these lectures with friendly care, 
and commend them to the kindly consideration of the 
reading public. Their author, the Rev. G. A. Lofton, 
D.D., is my neighbor and fellow-worker in the city 
of ]^ashville, where he is serving his Lord as the 
popular and successful pastor of the Central Baptist 
Church. I cordially commend this product of his 
genius to the blessing of God and the good-will of 
all who shall read these introductory words. 

O. P. Fitzgerald. 

Nashville, December 16, 1889. 




GORTERTS, 



PAGE 



The Mote-hunteb 15 

Stick to Your Bush 22 

Pick Yourself Up 33 

Church Asses 40 

Killing Time — Time Killing You 50 

EocK of Ages 65 

Slander 75 

Kindness and Cruelty 85 

Eip Van Winkle 95 

Whipping the Devil around the Stump 102 

On the Fence 113 

Two Masters 120 

The Perfect Model 130 

Delirium Tremens 140 

The Lightning-bug Convention 151 

Pot Calling Kettle Black 163 

Sowing and Reaping Wild Oats 173 

Profanity 185 

The Sulks 194 

The Devil's Sifter 207 

Hard-shells 217 

Jealousy 229 

The Law and the Gospel 239 

Bed too Short, Blanket too Narrow 248 

(11) 



12 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Dbunkaed's Last Offering 258 

The Two Ways 268 

The Peofessional Liar ' , 279 

Power of Temptation 289 

The Five Asinines 299 

Strain Out a Gnat, Swallow a Camel 308 

The Little Poxes 321 

A Fight with Conscience 331 

Church Crutches 346 

The Crook and the Crank 359 

Shimei Throwing Stones 369 

Fast Young Man Treed 379 

House on a Eock •' • • 386 

Big " I " AND Little " You ". 397 

The Deyil a-fishing 409 

Little and Big End of Life's Horn , 419 

Beauty a Duty 432 



THE MOTE-HUNTER. 




cc 
^ERE we behold a picture of optical surgery 

"^"^ at the hands of a hypocrite. It was one 



of the sins of infinitesimal iniquity, of mi- 
croscopic turpitude, among the Pharisees; 
and this species of Pharisaism has an abundant 
and luxui'iant reproduction in this and every 
other age. " Why beholdest thou the mote that is in 
thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that 
is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy 
brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye^ 
and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hyp- 
ocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; 
and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote 
out of thy brother's eye." This is the preceptive 
portrait which Jesus drew of this species of hypoc- 
risy; and the picture I have drawn as an illustration 
of it shows an old, hump-backed, long-faced, crooked- 
nosed hypocrite complacently and cruelly picking a 
mote out of his neighbor's eye, while a beam pro- 
trudes visibly from his own. He is giving his victim 
all the pain he can, and the poor fellow undergoes 
about the same torture that a person does when he 
gets a railroad cinder extracted by the optician, after 
having been made to feel the misery of the same for 
about three days. The hypocrite takes particular 
2 (15) 



16 THE MOTE-HUNTER. 

pains to make us keenly sensible of the mote in our 
eye long before he would extract it; and when he goes 
to take it out he puts his instrument into the very 
socket of your eye. If you notice, he is left-handed 
in the operation; and I want to lay down the proverb : 
The mote-hunter always goes for your eye with his sinister 
hand. He is both mean and awkward about it, and he 
aims to hurt you all he can. 

The mote-hunter is by far the most microscopic of 
all the animalcule species. He is always in a small 
business, expecting to produce big results. His cap- 
ital consists in mites, and he has the refined and ex- 
quisite faculty of producing- more to the amount in- 
vested than any other man engaged in the business 
of meanness. He is narrow between his sunken eyes; 
his forehead is deep, contracted, and sloping; his nose 
is long and crooked; his chin turns up to meet its 
aquiline brother; his jaws are hollow, and his cheek- 
bones prominent; his lips are thin, and his mouth is 
meretricious. He is a little man, and he deals in lit- 
tle things; and, being a hypocrite, he never troubles 
about big things in others, however big or monstrous 
his own sins. His proclivities are such that no lions 
ever lie in his path; but he hunts bugs and kills in- 
sects. He would stand and stamp the life out of 
chigoes for an hour at a time. Elephants, tigers, hy- 
enas, these never seem to occur to his weasel-intel- 
lect; and condors, eagles, buzzards, they never fly in 
the atmosphere of his contracted brain. His name is 
little Tomtit, Titmouse, Titcomb; and, being a hyp- 
ocrite, he hunts among the grass, not for worms and 
gi'asshoppers, but for invisible insects. He could not 
swallow a June-bug at all, and an ordinary house-fly 
would choke him to death. He is a " small ]3otato," 



THE MOTE-HUJ^TEE. 17 

and rotten at that; and there is no language which 
can properly caricature his littleness and meanness. 

In business this old hypocrite is a " skinflint," and, 
as it is quaintly and vulgarly expressed, " he would 
skin a flea for his hide and tallow." He is "penny 
wise and pound foolish; " and he deals in coppers 
and petty cash accounts alone. ]S'o trust nor confi- 
dence does he rei30se in his fellow-man, especially in 
small things; and he never has any thing big to deal 
in. He treats God in the same way he treats his fel- 
low-man in business, if he is in the Church — and he 
almost always is — and when he gives, he peels ofl'the 
ragged ten-cent bill from his little roll, or puts in the 
nickel with a hole in it, palmed off* upon him by some- 
body at last, after twenty years' effort to cheat him. 
He claims that all he has belongs to God, but that he 
must take care of the Lord's money; and hence he 
can stand with unabashed countenance and emotion- 
al indifference before the broad charity and generous 
liberality of others. He spits in the fire when it con- 
sumes the coal too fast, and his economy would steal 
the oats from his own horse. It is said that one such 
was a deacon-member of a Baptist Church in Tennes- 
see some years ago. He was noted for his pretended 
piety and for his merciless penuriousness. His pastor 
had preached a year to his Church, and had received 
nothing. He arose one Sunday morning, at the close 
of a sermon, and stated that he was in need of money, 
food, clothing, and that the Church owed him and did 
not pay him. The old hypocritical deacon arose in 
reply, and said : " Go on, pastor, and preach the gos- 
pel ; and Paul says, ' They that preach the gospel 
shall live of the gospel.' The Lord will give you 
souls for your hire." "Yes," said the pastor, "I 



18 THE MOTE-HUISTTEE. 

know God will give me souls for my hire, and com- 
fort my heart; but I can't eat souls; my family and 
my horse can't feed on souls; and if we could, it 
would take about seventy-five souls of your size to 
make us a breakfast." The stingy old molecule took 
his seat, and the brethren paid the debt. How many 
of these little, covetous, stingy hypocrites infest the 
Churches, like moths that eat through the hive, de- 
stroy the honey, and kill the bees! 

Again, this old mote-hunter is characteristic in 
discipline. He is exceedingly cautious about receiv- 
ing Church-members, especially when they are young. 
If any man cruelly catechises them, it will be he. 
"With his long face and hypocritical cant, he will ex- 
amine minutely the candidate for baptism upon all 
the points of Christian experience, which he closely 
studies and sacredly guards — that is, in others — and 
in nine cases out of ten, when he is allowed to exam- 
ine, he will object to something in. the best experi- 
ence which would be given at the door of the Church. 
Intellectually keen and technical, he is totally unspir- 
itual, having the confidence of nobody ; and yet he is 
the judge of every man's religion, down to the jots 
and tittles. In matters of offense against the Church 
he carries a shot-gun for every trifling infraction — es- 
pecially against the young people. A parlor dance, 
an amateur stage-play, a card-party, the circus, or 
even a play at the social — O these are simply awful! 
He doesn't mind taking four per cent, a month on 
money loaned. He counts the grains of coffee when 
he goes to balance the scales. He is a Shylock for 
every drop of blood in the pound of flesh which for- 
feits your promise. He will take any legal shift to 
avoid a moral obligation. He will rob the widow 



THE MOTE-HUlN-^TEPw 19 

and the orphan when defenseless by justice; and he 
will turn the poor mother and her babe upon the 
streets if every cent of the rent does not come up at 
the end of the month. He denounces the saloon and 
the poor drunkard, but will keep a demijohn of "re- 
freshnxent " behind the door, with a sprig of snake- 
root in it in order to claim it for bitters. O yes, he 
will do all this, and yet he will " fire " the yoimg frol- 
icker out of the Church upon the very first charge of 
inconsistency. He picks motes out of other people's 
eyes, but leaves the beam in his own every time. 

We find these flaw-pickers amongst every class of 
people, not only men and women who can intellectu- 
ally split a hair between the north and the north- 
west side, but who can see a mosquito on the top of 
a house, and never see the house itself. We find 
them among our critical preachers, sometimes, who 
skin you alive for the least defect in preaching or 
practice; and yet they are totally blind to their own 
defects, especially their mean and narrow-minded 
spirit of criticism and censure. There are thousands 
of people on a broader or more contracted plane who 
are ever finding fault with other people, when their 
own sins and failures stick out of their eyes and their 
lives like great beams of offense. God deliver me 
from a flaw-picking and a mote-hunting* spirit! I 
would rather be almost any other character in Bun- 
yan's " Pilgrim's Progress " than the old man with a 
" muck-rake," ever looking down, and never look- 
ing up. I despise that spirit, especially, which goes 
through your garden, and, instead of plucking flow- 
ers, only picks weeds, hunts bugs, and goes away 
complaining that it can find nothing beautiful and 
good. How many people go to God's apple-tree, full 



20 THE MOTE-HUJSTTER. 

of luscious fruit, and yet hunt for some diminutive, 
speckled, shriveled, little apple, put it in their pock- 
ets, and go off to represent the tree by the specimen 
plucked, when they could have filled themselves with 
the best of fruits ever grown. As they do Grod and 
religion they do every thing good and glorious. 
The}'^ hunt for the little spots on the sun; and the 
moon is a fraud because they can see a man in it. A 
fleecy speck in the clear, blue vault of heaven, with 
them, spoils the most beautiful day; and if a whole 
grand character or life is flecked with a scar or a 
stain never so small, they counterbalance the over- 
shot wheel of overwhelming good and honor by the 
under-current of little, mean, low criticism and cen- 
sure. If Spurgeon or Talmage should squint his eye 
when preaching, it Would ruin his eloquence and 
power; and if one of them should create a smile by a 
humorous remark, they would nevir go to hear him 
again. The old Scotch lady who was so scrupulous 
about Sabbath observance, to whom was cited the 
example of the Saviour and his disciples plucking 
and eating the ears of corn on the Lord's-day, and 
who replied, "And I never thought any the better of 
him for it, either," is a case in point. 

After all, these flaw-pickers and mote-hunters do us 
good. They keep us on the watch and the alert, and 
on the scratch, as do the mosquitoes and fleas and 
flies. They are always around and about us. Ser- 
pents, tigers, and hyenas are more rare, and we can 
guard against larger and more conspicuous beasts of 
torture and prey, but you cannot keep out of the way 
of the little stingers. The mote-hunter is sure to find 
you and give you a lively time in this world; and, be- 
ing proj)erly exercised thereby, they work out for us 



THE MOTE-HUNTER. 21 

the peaceable fruits of righteousness. They keep us 
well trimmed and particular, and in all the little and 
nicer points of life they contribute largely to etiquette, 
punctiliousness, and scrupulosity in small as well as 
in great things. They help considerably to kill off 
the little foxes which spoil our vines and eat our ten- 
der grapes, and for all the good they do us, whatever 
the absence of good motive, we should be profoundly 
grateful. The good they do is incidental to their 
meanness and littleness; but this is the compensation, 
in God's all-wise and overruling providence, which 
accrues to those who desire and try to do right in 
spite of their infirmities. The mote-hunter — the flaw- 
picker — has a mission. These animalculge of the mi- 
croscopic world are our multitudinous and infinitesi- 
mal scourges, and if we are improved thereby, we 
should always thank God, take courage, and go for- 
ward to a better conduct of life. 




STICK TQ YOUR BUSH. 




jOME boys and girls went into the woods to 
pick berries; and, as is nsnal, most of them 
played about; a few of them picked casual- 
ly, from bush to bush; one, it is said, stuck to 
his bush until he got the berries from it, and 
soon went home with his bucket full. In the 
picture you see some running around, one lying flat 
on his back, one dancing, and another standing 
upon his head; one sitting near the industrious boy 
looking on, and another leaning against a tree and 
looking as if he expects to get, without laboring him- 
self, the berries this boy has picked. It is just so 
with the world. One man labors, and another expects 
to reap without sowing; while a large number play, or 
else work in such a desultory and inefficient manner as 
to accomplish but little. Some sleep, some idle, some 
watch for others' labor; but life is "a hard road to 
travel" to the man who does not work, whether he 
steals or gambles or begs; and the moral of the 
whole story is that he who sticks to his bush is almost 
always certain of success. The motto of life is : " Stick 
to your bush."' 

]N"ow it is highly important for a man to start right 
in the world by selecting the right kind of a bush to 
stick to. Some people stick to a very poor bush, 
(22) 



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STICK TO YOUR BUSH. 25 

some to a very bad one; and hence for some the fruits 
of life are meager, for others poisonous. We do not 
want to select a barren tree, nor do we want one 
that bears evil fruit. In choosing the vocations of 
life we need to follow that which suits our talents and 
peculiarities of genius; and if we make a mistake at 
first, we must search for the right tree until we find 
it. Many a good farmer has only made a second-class 
lawyer or doctor; and many a splendid mind has wast- 
ed its energies behind the plow-handles — a place, how- 
ever, where wasted genius has never done any harm. 
Some men debauch life and talent behind the counter of 
a bar-room; but this is choosing a bohun-upas be- 
neath which to die yourself, and beneath which you 
draw others to circle, center, and die. The great point 
in life is for one to choose what he can best do, and 
then stick to it until he succeeds ; and herein lies a great 
lesson for teachers, parents, and preachers to learn, 
since they have so much to do in molding the mind 
and shaping the destiny of the young. I knew a prom- 
inent and wealthy lawyer once, who had a son pos- 
sessed of a mechanical genius of extraordinary devel- 
opment. He educated his boy in that direction, and 
finally gave him to an apprenticeship in a machine-shop, 
where he worked hard for years. That boy is now the 
master mechanic in one of the great railroad shops of 
this country, filling an honorable and lucrative posi- 
tion. His father first encouraged him to study law ; but 
the boy's native bent chose the mechanic bush, and 
his life, perhaps a failure in law, has proved a success 
and blessing in the direction of native capacity and 
qualification. Often we make mistakes in choosing 
the right bush, and as often we see fitful, spasmodic, 
and unsuccessful lives. Sometimes we see men who 



26 STICK TO YOUR BUSH. 

are shifting all the while from bush to bush, never 
succeeding at any thing — " Jack-at-all-trades, and 
good for nothing," fulfilling the old proverb that " a 
rolling stone never gathers any moss." 

The great misfortune of this labor-saving age lies in 
the fact that too many people are hunting professions 
and soft places who would do infinitely better on the 
farm or in the machine-shop. The consequence is — 
in the South especially, where the negro rents and 
runs and ruins the " old plantation" — our lands are go- 
ing to rack, with but little exception, while our boys 
are all going to the city, and as many of the negroes as 
can get there. The agricultural bush, the most beauti- 
ful and essential, is left to wither and perish, whereas a 
first-class agricultural education would turn many a 
genius into the channel of its greatest usefulness, and 
make our sunny land the garden spot of the world. 
We do pretty well on guano at the hands of novices 
and soil-annihilators; but what a country we could 
have if we had the universally educated farmer! "We 
shall have to wait for the German and the live Yankee; 
while our farmers rent out their beautiful lands to 
negroes, go a-fishing in spring-time, run little stores, 
and sit around small towns whittling sticks or run- 
ning for office. O for a splendid class of farmers 
educated to scientific toil, and anxious to stick to 
the agricultural bush! Our country places would 
spring up from dilapidation; our gullied hills would 
grow green again with grass and clover; fine cattle 
would low and graze upon a thousand hills; school- 
houses would dot the land; good country Churches 
would cease to starve poor preachers; and law and 
order and culture would refine and develop the old- 
fashioned country" home, as we used to have it. Boys 



STICK TO YOUR BUSH. 27 

and girls, more of you stick to the old farm bush and 
make it grow. 

Having found the right bush in life, the great point 
is to stick to it. Continuity and tenacity — " sticka- 
bility," as it is vulgarly called — is one of the prime 
elements of success. A man may possess every oth- 
er quality and qualification; but, this wanting, the 
grandest talents and gifts will prove a failure. Ge- 
nius consists in ability, motive, and will, coupled 
with energy, zeal, and system; and when such a ge- 
nius can hold on, hold fast, and hold out, in the prop- 
er calling of life, nothing but disease and misfortune 
can bring failure. Opportunity will never be want- 
ing; for tenacity will always find an opportunity for 
success in the generous course of time. I remember, 
twenty years ago, a youth in a certain city who se- 
' cured a paper-stand in the corner of a post-ofiice 
front. He had a taste for books and papers; and, in 
connection with his little stand, he sold pea-nuts, can- 
dies, and other trifling articles of merchandise, exer- 
cising a rigid economy over his paltry means. In a 
year or two he had laid up some money, and he rent- 
ed a small store-house, when he enlarged his busi- 
ness and increased his capital. In a few years more 
he rented a larger house, and set up a bookstore of 
grander proportions. It was not long until he owned 
the store and was doing a flourishing business. He 
now owns several stores, an opera-house, and a con- 
siderable amount of real estate in the city. He stuck 
to his bush — went in at the little end of life's horn, 
and he is coming out at the big end, while thousands 
try to go in at the big end only to come out at the 
little end. So thousands have done in business; and 
our greatest men in all the callings and professions 



28 STICK TO YOUR BUSH. 

of life to-day are those who chose their bush early, 
and stuck to it. The Astors, the Yanderbilts, the 
Stewarts — the millionaires of America — began poor 
and by littles, and gradually worked their way up to 
fortune and prominence upon their " one idea " of 
success; and this is largely the history of the world's 
enterprise and progress in every land and age. 

I knew a young man who studied law by the light 
of a pine-knot fire at night, working hard upon the 
farm by day. To be a lawyer was his idea and his 
ambition, and with the aid of an old practitioner he 
was at last fitted for admission to the bar. He went 
to a small town and rented an oflSce of small propor- 
tions, with a table and a few books which his scanty 
means had enabled him to purchase, being also fee- 
bly aided by a poor fatlier. He sat in that office for 
five years before he ever got any thing like an im- 
portant case; but he stuck to his bush — his books — 
and thus accumulated capital for future business. An 
old lawyer friend secured for him a place in a great 
criminal trial in an adjoining county, and the young 
man had to walk ten miles and carry his books upon 
his back in order to attend the trial. His speech was 
so able and marked for its eloquence and power that 
he made a reputation at a single leap, and from that 
time on his jDractice grew into a lucrative business. 
He went to the Legislature, the Senate, ran for Con- 
gress, and before he died he sat upon the supreme 
bench of one of our Southern States. This story of 
struggle and conflict against poverty, obscurity, and 
adversity is but one of a thousand which illustrates 
the fact that true manhood and greatness arise from 
the persistency of a single idea against all odds to 
successful consummation. 



STICK TO YOUR BUSH. 29 

There is no royal path to honor, glory, or wealth 
at best; and those who have been suddenly or instru- 
mentally lifted to high position seldom maintain it 
without having- been educated to receive it. The 
only road to great and ultimate success is bedewed 
with the sweat and tears of patient pertinacity and 
growth in life's callings. It consists in choosing a 
good bush and in sticking to it. Let the beginnings 
be what they may, " stick to your bush." 

"What is true of the secular callings of life is also 
true in religion. The faculties of coiicentrative- 
ness and adhesiveness belong to the moral as well 
as to the business character of a man. You often see 
the difference in Sunday-school scholars and Church- 
members. One is always at his post; another is ever 
on the pad, in and out, tramping from one school or 
Church to another, or otherwise pursuing an irregu- 
lar and unsteady course. You can generally read 
the future destiny of the man or the woman in these 
characteristics of boys and girls as illustrated in their 
tenacious or desultory attachment to the Sunday- 
school and the Church. If I were hunting for a serv- 
ice boy or watching out for a partner in business or 
a companion for life, I Avould as soon go to the Sun- 
day-school and the Church as anywhere else. Here 
" stickability " sticks out, often contrary to nature 
itself; and it is not unfrequently here, from both 
temporal and eternal stand-points, that character and 
destiny are fixed and made. Some people begin in 
the Sunday-school in childhood, and they never get 
out. Converted, they become the most ardent and 
devoted Church-members; and much depends upon 
that tenacious disposition which sticks to your bush. 
There are but few exceptions to the rule; and it is 



30 STICK TO YOUR BUSH. 

generally observed that religious life thus begun 
holds out best in the long run. There are some peo- 
ple who go from Chuich to Church, not as a matter 
of conviction, but for the want of settled convictions 
and fixed purposes; and it may be set down as a fact 
that such lives are fruitless of any good. A man will 
do more good by sticking even to some erroneous 
views in religion than to be hunting for truth always, 
and never finding it. Some men change from con- 
viction, and stick when changed. They find a bet- 
ter bush perhaps; but it does no good to change too 
often, much less to be always changing. The best 
plan is to find a good religious bush to begin with, 
and then stick to it. Some stick, however, who do 
no good; but, as a rule, under all circumstances, how- 
ever erroneous in minor respects a man's position, 
sticking is better than rolling. Almost any religious 
bush is better than no bush; and if a man will take 
his Bible and follow his convictions, he will not be 
long in finding a bush to stick to, and, sticking to it, 
he will fill his basket for eternity. 







Am- 
n^K >. - / .ir -^■j.iv, ; 'y- ;.>K'-i: ■.-;<,:: -":?5^ / y ? .^ ,-j .1 .'J: y j^ 








■:,^|fe#'--'^^V^------ 




>^-^JI 



■1,-r' 3-",*': 'i^ - . ..I : !^'. 

r::^id■^^:|^,^:K■:*4.r■■..^^-■M 



PICK YOURSELF UP. 



S illustration preceding this sketch shows 
^?il^^2 a poor fellow, for any reason, down in the 
..nm^r^ world. He is surrounded by seven char- 
^, acters principally representing the -many who 
oppose and the few who help him. On his back 
is the bold and outspoken enemy who " sits down 
upon him." In his front is the man less bold who 
stands at a distance and throws stones at him. In 
his rear is the sneak who slips up behind him and 
kicks him. On the left of him stand three characters 
— the left-hand of whom is a business man who looks 
on with cold concern, but who feels that it would not 
"pay" to help him. On the right of the three is the 
jDolicy man who politely presses his hands together 
and concludes that it might not be " popular " to help 
him. In the midst of the three is the regular old hyp- 
ocrite, heartless and blind with prejudice, who walls 
his eyes heavenward and says, " He had no business 
to get down in the world, to do wrong. Let him 
stay where he is; he ought to be there;" and while 
he takes no positive part in keeping him down, except 
by a cold, philosophical criticism of his sins or errors, 
he will do nothing to encourage his getting up. In 
front of the poor fellow a woman, representing true 
charity, is seen taking him by the hand and helping 

(33) 



34 PICK YOURSELF UP. 

him up in the face of all his opposition. The picture 
represents a man determined to rise, and the following 
sketch of my lecture on this subject gives a little ad- 
vice to the point. Several other characters, of minor 
importance, both opposing and helping the man who is 
down, might have been represented, but these suffice, 
in general outline, to show the chief difficulties of a 
rising man, especially when he is once down. 

IS'othing is more common than for people to stum- 
ble and fall, and it is about as true morally as it is 
physically. There are but few people in the world 
who never made a mistake, committed a blunder, nor 
got a tumble of some kind, even in the plainest path 
marked out for human conduct. People are often 
safest in the most dangerous way, because more on 
their guard. Every boy has stumped his toe, and, not 
unfrequently, upon the smooth pavement an orang-e or 
a banana-peel causes us to slip and bruise our body, 
if we do not break our back or crack our head. Some- 
times these falls are fatal or maim us for life, but gen- 
erally we get up again, either by ourselves or by the 
help of others — more or less hurt — and in a little or a 
great while we are up and out again. So in the bus- 
iness and social affairs of life. He who attempts or 
risks much — meets the temptations and oppositions of 
the world — sometimes errs, stumbles, and falls, and, 
like the physical man, he may fall fatally or get badly 
hurt or casually bruised. In the ruin of himself, 
sometimes he gets beyond the possibility of self-ref- 
ormation, or, in the eyes of mankind, he may be unable 
to reach restoration to position or honor. In any 
event, however, if self-ruin has not been wrought, or 
if our fall is not beyond recovery in the eyes of men, 
we have the same encouragement that a physically 



PICK YOURSELF UP. 35 

hurt man has to recover; and if we have not commit- 
ted an unpardonable crime in God's sight, we have 
the chance and the inspiration to rise to heaven, 
whether we can recover with our fellow-man or not. 
He that has never stumbled nor fallen — never erred 
nor done wrong — has never traveled far nor attempted 
much; and our case must be an exceedingly bad one 
not at last to have the general sympathy of mankind 
in getting upon our feet again if we keep on trying. 

When you fall, my friend, pick yourself up. This 
is a case of ordinary possibility; and in every case of 
restoration we have one of the sublimest illustrations 
of manhood. I like the boy who stumps his toe, knocks 
off the nail, tumbles heels over head, and, without a 
grunt or a whine, gets up again, grins and bears it, 
and goes limping on his way. The little fellow that 
sprawls out and bawls, and waits for his mother to come 
and pick him up, pet and coddle him till he gets well, 
is not the fellow to pick himself up and get on his feet, 
a-going again. It is always a mark of manhood not to 
fall, if we are doing any thing in the world; but it is 
often a mark of greater manhood to pick yourself up 
when down than it is in some people not to tumble at 
all. Some people deserve but little credit for not fall- 
ing. Cold-hearted or well balanced, so conditioned 
or circumstanced in life as never to meet temptation 
or trial, they never get in the way of a tumble. 
Some are negative and inert, or never subjected to 
conflict with the world; and they never "spoil a horn 
to make a spoon." They never make any spoons; and 
it is useless to talk about manhood being put to the 
test in such people. They do not compare, for man- 
hood, with the poor fellow who has been trying to do 
something in conflict with the world and his own nat- 



36 PICK YOURSELF UP. 

ure, and, though fallen, has picked himself up and 
is making a man of himself once more. Perhaps he 
had a thousand conflicts with himself and with all the 
powers of seductive evil, of delusive darkness, of 
which the other man never dreamed. The man who 
picks himself up and goes on against the double oppo- 
sition of his own weakness and the world's attempts 
to crush him, against the friction of habit and of a 
lost or damaged character, displays a heroic man- 
hood if he rises again to position and honor. But 
few ever do it, because few ever press to the end the 
heroic remedy of self-treatment. 

It is a sad fact that, in extreme cases, so few of the 
fallen, or failing, ever pick themselves up. All abont 
us the world is strewn with human wrecks, and no age 
ever witnessed greater efforts upon the part of charity 
for human restoration. Thousands fall, and seem to 
persist in falling, especially in drunkenness, lewdness, 
and other vices, when, if they would, the world never 
before offered such chances to rise again. After all, 
the world admires heroes; and old Tinie is a wonderful 
healer and forgetter of the past. He that can him- 
self be inspired to forget the things behind him, and 
can be made to press for the prizes of the future be- 
fore him, has a thousand chances of honor and posi- 
tion he imagines are forever lost to him when down in 
the world. The man struggling to rise in faith and hope 
always has God on his side; and God and the hero, 
struggling for restoration and manhood, are a big 
majority against all opposition. Earth and hell com- 
bined cannot battle down such a man or woman. I 
don't care what such a man or woman may have done, 
how far or low he or she may have fallen into crime 
and disgrace, recovery is possible, at least in virtue 



PICK YOURSELF UP. 37 

and honor, and in the consciousness of rectitude and 
happiness ; and, under God, there is no telling what po- 
sition such a man or woman may attain to, even among 
men, if health and life do not forsake them too soon. 
God's grace is sufficient for the restoration of every 
wreck of life, willing and determined to be and do some- 
thing again. Mary Magdalene, the thief on the cross, 
John B. Gough, and thousands of others have been 
saved and elevated to honor and position by religion. 
David picked himself up, under God; and Samson 
might have done so before the Philistines if he had not 
lost his eyes, and God had so willed. Millions have 
picked themselves up, have lived honorable and useful 
lives before they died, and have gone home shouting 
to God and to glory, saved and sanctified by grace and 
grit combined. 

I wish to notice two great difficulties in the way of 
picking yourself up, and which have to be overcome : 

1. Our own weaknesses. A man once down loses 
self-confidence and often self-control, and by repeat- 
ing his falls he continues to weaken all the forces of 
manhood. Bad habit breaches the fortress of charac- 
ter, and every repetition of vice in the line of bad habit 
opens wider still the breach, however often repaired. 
A man may become so discouraged by his own weak- 
ness, growing weaker still, that every motive to rise is 
finally lost. Pride and ambition, hope and resolution, 
take their flight, and sooner or later the sense of virtue 
and honor becomes deadened, the strong column of 
conscience crumbles from under the fabric of char- 
acter, and the victim of habit loses all the elements of 
manhood upon which to work for restoration. Often 
there is nothing left, apparently, for God and religion 
to work upon. There is a point, therefore, at which the 



38 PICK YOURSELF UP. 

fallen must stop — a point beyond which to go, and 
recovery seems impossible. The deadening of the 
soul's faculties by continued indulgence — the loss of 
self-confidence and control — added to the conscious- 
ness of the world's contempt and abhorrence of us, 
and a man will soon lose all hope and finally plunge 
into the vortex of inextricable and irretrievable ruin, 
as thousands do. Hence the man who would pick up 
must take his case in time, and, with all the help he can 
get from God and others, he must go to the work of 
repairing the breaches of weakness in the fortress of 
his own character. He must take his case in time, 
and not wait, as many consumptives do, who go to 
Florida or Colorado, too late and simply to die. 

2. Another difficulty in the way is the uncharita- 
ble and the tempting world — to say nothing of the 
devil himself. A man's enemies, and the cold, un- 
charitable element of humanity around him, will take 
pleasure in arraying his past history before him, and 
his old comx)anions in vice, stronger than himself — 
and the very agents of the devil for ruin — will seek 
to draw him back to the horrible pit and the miry 
clay. The Puritanic and the Pharisaic will scowl him 
into hell itself, if possible — thrust him into obscuri- 
ty, at best, and tell him, if he does reform or rise, he 
must keep a back seat the balance of his life. Such 
people never pick anybody up, never help anybody 
but themselves and their own. Upon the whole, how- 
ever, the majority of the world is more charitable than 
we think, and a man trying to rise will have just about 
enough to help him pull his kite-string, while there 
will be plenty enough to create a breeze of opposition 
sufficient to make it rise, if he will keej) on pulling 
the string. This is just about as it should be, for a 



PICK YOURSELF UP. 39 

man needs enough opposition to rise up successfully, 
appreciate his fall, and stay picked up when he gets 
up. It would not do to get up too easily, else he 
would not stay up, and the harder the fight he has in 
getting up, if he stays up, the better for him. It 
would be all the better for him if he could fight it out 
all unaided and alone. He would then be better able 
to stand and to become all the more useful and emi- 
nent if he turned his talents and energies, thoroughly 
educated by sad experience, into the channels of God's 
glory; and let me conclude by saying that no one 
upon earth is so capable of doing his fellow-man good 
as a thoroughly and permanently reformed man or 
woman. They know themselves, and they know the 
world better than any other class of people; and if 
they will only turn their experience into the gold of 
other's good, they may rapidly lay up treasure in 
heaven as no other class of people can do. Unfort- 
unate men and women, pick yourselves up. There is 
a chance for you all, if you have not fallen too hard 
and killed yourself in the utter loss of your moral and 
intellectual strength. Ordinarily, there is a bright 
and glorious future for every fallen and failing victim 
of vice or misfortune determined to rise up and live 
again. The world always kicks a fellow when he is 
down. It loves to wallow him in the mud; but the 
world always shouts applause, at last, to the man who 
rises and returns the compliment by wallowing it in 
the mud. Don't be so much afraid of the world as of 
yourself, and be sure that God is on your side if you 
only trust him. ISTobody can hurt a man half so bad- 
ly as himself, and nobody can help a man when hurt 
half so effectively as himself. Pick yourself up. 
8 



GHURGH ASSES. 




)EFORE proceeding to discuss my subject let 

me explain the blackboard picture which I 

have drawn for the occasion. The scene is a 

church audience, before which a minister is 

trying to preach the gospel of the Son of God. 

This audience is seated before him, and in the 
main trying to listen to his discourse. You will observe, 
however, that there are quite a number of disturbers 
sprinkled through, the assembly of the saints. These 
disturbers are distinguished by asinine heads, the only 
true mark of a church disturber. On the front row 
you observe one looking back and passing a note to an- 
other on the second row, who is scribbling a note in a 
hymn-book. At both ends of the third row you see a 
couple of "gabblers," who represent the "braying ass 
and the laughing jenny," seen upon almost every occa- 
sion in the house of God. At the farther end of the 
fourth and fifth rows you observe two engaged in 
backward and forward conversation across the pews, 
in so bold and boisterous a style as not only to disturb 
those around them, but as to indicate that they regard 
themselves as the only personages of importance in 
the congregation. !N^ear the center of the sixth row 
there is a greenhorn of a donkey who is looking be- 
hind him at the congregation in his rear. On the last 
(40) 



CHURCH ASSES. 43 



row yon behold a courting couple in sweet converse — 
"billing and cooing" during the sermon, and cannot 
wait one hour for a better opportunity. In the rear 
is a dude coming late and one going out, displaying 
their handsomeness before the people as they walk 
up and down the aisles — usually, but not always, ac- 
companied by a " dudine." At the door you discover 
two " fiends " asinine peeping in upon the audience, 
and waiting for the close of the service to gaze upon 
the girls as they pass out, show off their red neck-ties 
and stove-pipes, get up a flirtation, and " make a mash." 
The one farthest outside is smoking a cigarette, the 
fumes of which he occasionally whiffs into the door of 
the church. At the windows of the church you behold 
the peeping ass, several of which are peering into the au- 
dience, attracting attention instead of coming in and 
respectfully taking a seat and listening to the sermon 
like gentlemen. All this is a scene which may, in whole 
or in part, be witnessed in many places and sections 
of oUr country. 

]S'ow I do not mean that any of you who sit before me 
this afternoon belong to this long-eared confraternity. 
You are all refined and Avell-behaved boys and girls, 
young gentlemen and ladies, as well as old. So you need 
not think me personal. A perfect type of Balaam's 
saddle-horse could not now be found, I suppose, in my 
audience; and the piu'pose of this lecture is to put you 
upon your guard, so that you may always recognize this 
beast at church, and so to become disgusted that you may 
never imitate his example, but shun his company and 
desx3ise his character. Moreover, the lecture will aid 
you, should you ever so forget yourself in the house 
of God as to imitate the conduct of this animal, to 
recognize, upon reflection, yourself. I want my picture 



44 CHUKCH ASSES. 



to be a kind of looking-glass for the futnre. The 
caricature does not fit any other animal so well as the 
ass, which is only a simple, long-eared, leather-headed 
beast. He never means any great harm by what 
he does, unless you irritate him to kick, or pull against 
his stubbornness. He brays and plays the fool gen- 
erally, for the want of sense. Those who by misbe- 
havior disturb worship in God's house are generally 
" lacking in the upper story." They are frivolous and 
light-minded creatures who sometimes have very good 
hearts. Sometimes they have sensibilities enough to 
be sorry upon reflection, when they have brains enough 
to be convinced of wrong. I have seen some such; and 
really there are only a few mean enough to misbehave 
in God's house from vicious motives. A sap-head, not 
a bad heart, is usually the cause, and the church ass is 
rather to be pitied than despised. A man is less respon- 
sible for an empty head than for a bad heart. JSTever- 
theless, for stupidity and folly, punishment of some 
kind is the only corrective of the ass, as of any other an- 
imal. He has to be beaten with many stripes, although 
to him much has not been given. 

My friends, there are many w^ays in which this un- 
fortunate animal displays himself to disadvantage. 
Let me now analyze his church performances, which 
make men ashamed and which make angels blush : 

1. It is quite asinine to turn your head and look be- 
hind you while seated in church. Refined people 
never do it; and refined people do not like to have 
peoxDle turn and stare at them while sitting behind you, 
or when coming in. Occasionally an ass comes in 
just to be seen, as only asses do; but while staring at 
such would hot hurt the ass, it would hurt you. How- 
ever, it would be an unjust encouragement to asinine 



CHURCH ASSES. 45 



vanity, and it would be disrespect to the minister as well 
as the violation of general propriety. Always keep 
your head erect and square to the front. It is good 
manners, the evidence of good breeding. Otherwise 
you become the laughing-stock of cultivated people. 

2. Another asinine performance consists in coming 
in and going' out during service. !N^ever go to church 
if you cannot stay when you go. I have seen a young 
man come in and go out two or three times during 
the same service. He was perhaps looking for some- 
body, or else he Avas without motive or aim in visiting 
the house of God. In either event he shoAVS a worth- 
less object or an undecided character, and he makes 
himself a nuisance to those who observe his conduct. 
Such a man demonstrates that he would make a poor 
Church-member and a failure in business. He can- 
not " stick to his bush." Regular or irregular church- 
going, as shown in another lecture, is an indication 
of character; and when you repeatedly go into church 
and don't stick, it is the signal-pointer of an indifferent 
man or woman. Go in and stick, and it will do you 
good in yourself, and give others a good opinion of 
your stability. 

3. Another asinine performance consists in stand- 
ing about the church doors, laughing and talking 
aloud, smoking cigars or squirting tobacco-juice, or 
peeping in upon the congregation to see who are there. 
Such disturbance is a great annoyance to both preach- 
er and people. Often in winter-time these disturbers 
of God's house open the door a dozen times or more, 
letting in the cold air upon the congregation. The 
peeping ass outside is well-nigh as great a bore as the 
talking ass inside. 

4. Among the worst of asinine performances is 



46 CHURCH ASSES. 



that of laughing and talking in the pews during serv- 
ice. Sometimes it occurs between donkeys of the 
same gender, oftener between donkeys of a different 
sex; but whosoever is guilty of it creates the most 
serious disturbance to the minister and his congrega- 
tion. The Indians and Hottentots are said to be very 
respectful at church service. Jews and Catholics are 
solemn and silent in their houses of worship. A 
heathen would not think of desecrating the house of 
his god. I have often preached to negroes, and I 
never saw one misbehave. I have had an audience of 
penitentiary convicts, of jail-birds — yea, of lewd 
women and bad men in several places — and yet among 
all these I never saw any thing but respectful atten- 
tion to the preaching of the gospel. It is reserved 
only for Protestants and their children — and in their 
own churches, so far as my observation goes — to be 
guilty of the crime of misbehavior in the house of 
God, this high crime against religion. We should 
always remember that at church other people have ' 
rights as well as we, and that we have no right to dis- 
turb the privileges nor trample upon the liberties of 
other folks. It is a gross and outrageous insult to the 
man who preaches to you, and a greater insult to God; 
and a truly sensible and refined man, to say nothing 
of a Christian, would never even indicate to a public 
speaker that he was displeased or bored by showing 
him indifference or disrespect. He would patiently 
and respectfully hear him through, if he never went 
to hear him again. Such conduct as here described 
is pusillanimously mean; it is basely and cowardly as- 
inine. 

5. Another donkey performance in God's house is 
spitting upon the floor, carpeted or not. (See the 



CHUECH ASSES. 47 



picture.) The man is a long-eared ass who will do it. 
Often the tobacco-chewer leaves a spot under his pew, 
or in the aisle, as big as the map of Alaska, and then 
great puddles of diluted nicotine are often left for la- 
dies to drag their dresses through. It is sickening to 
'look at, much less to step in; and yet this long-eared 
ignoramus spewed it out there, and looked upon it as 
if it had been an ornamental salivary performance. 
He would not, perhaps, have recognized a spittoon, if 
it had been set before him. "What would you think 
of a man in your parlor spitting all over your carpet? 
How much less is he to be thought of who would thus 
profane the house of God! Such a man knows noth- 
ing of self-respect, much less of respect for others; 
and he seems never to have had any conception of sa- 
credness of place and respect for that. 

6, Another barbarian practice is that of defacing 
hymn-books, pews, and church walls. Boys and girls, 
young men and maidens — sometimes older people — 
are guilty of this asinine savagery. The Goths and 
Vandals did better. A Modoc or a Crowfoot Indian 
would not be guilty of such conduct. It is reserved 
only for American asses to do thus, and such people 
would chop your gate, cut your sofa, or gash your 
piano, if allowed to do so. But for the law the prop- 
erty of our country would be at the mercy of such 
lawless vandalism. 

7. Another asinine performance is pulling out your 
watch and snapping it, throwing back your head, and 
yawning in the face of the preacher and his audience. 
(See the picture.) Sometimes this performance is 
done purposely, and nothing but a tough hide and 
long ears can be guilty of it. No lady or gentleman 
ever did it; and the ignoramus with common-sense po- 



48 CHURCH ASSES. 



liteness would never treat the man in the pulpit with 
such gross incivility. 

In conclusion, there are a great many things to which 
I might further call your attention, but time fails me. 
Sometimes a donkey comes into God's house with his 
hat on until he takes his seat, or he comes in without 
cleaning his feet, or he will loll and roll upon his pew, 
or he will sleep and snore, but often the preacher is 
to blame for this latter vice — soporific asininity. 
Sometimes a fellow will twist and screw on his seat 
and make the preacher nervous and irritable, but it is 
also possible that the preacher sometimes has the oppo- 
site effect of sleep upon some auditors. Cultivated peo- 
ple, however, avoid these incivilities. It is said that 
a Frenchman of culture and refinement will listen to 
a performance or the most insipid and ludicrous con- 
versation with deepest attention and pleasure, appar- 
ently, lest he might otherwise offend or embarrass the 
speaker or actor. No matter how you feel about a 
place, a person, or a performance, never display your 
sense of displeasure, ridicule, or criticism at the time. 
It is asinine to do so. I always try to show consid- 
eration and respect, no matter what the character of 
the audience I visit or the discourse I hear or the per- 
formance I see. It is but politeness for me to behave 
in other people's houses, however humble, obscure, or 
low; and children and young people should above all 
remember when they are in God's house, and remem- 
ber that when away from home they represent their 
parents and their rearing. Your conduct is the expo- 
nent of your training. When you misbehave you rep- 
resent your parents, and . if you properly represent 
them by bad conduct, you tell a bad story of parentage 
and of yourself as well. It is at least a matter of good 



CHURCH ASSES, 49 



policy to behave well in God's house whether you 
feel like it or have been trained to it or not. I should 
hate for the world to think badly of my mother and 
father, even if I had no respect for myself. IN'ever 
play the donkey nor ask the world to write you down 
as an ass. 

According to ^sop, in his fable of the old lion, the 
ass is the " disgrace of nature." Surely no human be- 
ing having a high sense of honor and of self-respect 
would covet the characterization of this sketch, and 
yet it is not unfrequently the case that no instruction 
nor rebuke will correct the incorrigible leather-head 
who misbehaves in the house of God. Sometimes he 
becomes offended, and his asininity becomes all the 
more apparent and prominent, and it is a remarkable 
fact that nothing short of age and experience can 
generally cure this asinine malady. Like his proto- 
type, beating often does him no good in this respect, 
and it is a blessing that the weight and the wisdom 
of years, at last, wear out and prune off this detesta- 
ble habit. Young people, let me congratulate you on 
your good behavior, and let me beg you for the future 
that you save yourselves from the character of that 
beast which has been stigmatized as the " disgrace of 
nature." 



"^^^^^ 




KILLme TIME-TIME KILLING YOU, 



p^HE picture presented on the opposite page is 
a symbolic representation of a ybung man 
starting out to kill time. " The old man 
of the scythe and the hour-glass " is bending 
before his thrusts, dead to all the young man's 
advantages and opportunities in life, as he re- 
peatedly pierces him with the sword of pleasure, ease, 
•or indifference. Old Time holds up the glass in which 
the young man's sands of existence are gradually run- 
ning out; and the scythe, with which he is at last to 
be cut down, swings upon the old man's shoulder. 
The youth smiles complacently as he plies his sword, 
and he indicates the thoughtless and careless indif- 
ference of the young in wasting time. The past, to 
him, is too short to give the admonitions of experi- 
ence; the present suggests only gratification; and 
" Procrastination, the thief of time," flatters him with 
the ever delusive promise of "time enough yet" in 
the future. Wildly, fearlessly, recklessly, this youth- 
ful devotee of pleasure thrusts his sword, ever follow- 
ing old Time in the rear and piercing him in the back, 
instead of taking him by the forelock. He is regard- 
less of the fact that Time is bald upon the back of 
the head; that behind him all opportunity and effort, 
however good, are lost. Thousands earnestly and 

(50) 



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4 < 






^■■4" i' -■; -.-■■■' 



j^^^:^' ^^,^-.( /■■'"' ''-r:'^'. . .■■■■■■■ -'^- ^ 







KILLING TIME TIME KILLING YOU. 53 

agonizingly follow time without intending to kill him ; 
but time is worthless to him who does not get ahead, 
or at least keep up with him. 

There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; 
Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 

Following time is next to killing time; and in both 
cases this is the life of millions, in Vv^hole or in part. 
The consequences of such a 'life, however, I reserve 
for brief treatment when I come to reverse the picture. 

Let me say that one of the greatest crimes of which 
any man can be guilty is the killing of time. It is 
the most inexcusable and culpable of all murders. 
In all other murderous killing there is a motive or 
cause, more or less criminal, in the perpetrator; but 
here is a murder without any motive at all, a killing 
for the lack of motive. Premeditated malice, the 
sudden heat of passion, the involuntary taking of life 
in the performance of some unlawful act — these are 
the graded motives and causes which respectively 
represent murder, voluntary and involuntary, for which 
the law holds a man responsible; but in the murder of 
time the slayer kills in the gratification of pleasure 
and in the absence of any motive that leads to good 
or usefulness. He is like a little boy with a gun, 
going about shooting your pigs and chickens for sport, 
and, with total disregard for life, fires into your house 
and kills your child, all without intending to do any 
harm. Again, the time-killer is like a suicide who 
drinks arsenic or morphine, just for amusement, ab- 
solutely reckless as to the consequences upon himself, 
or others affected by his conduct and life. He has no 
malice, premeditated or otherwise ; he is not actuated 



54 KILLING TIME TIME KILLIiSTG YOU. 

in his crime by any sudden heat of passion. He is 
a murderer from the stand-point of criminal careless- 
ness, of gross neglect, of reckless disregard for him- 
self or others, all for his gratification and pleasure, 
and without any objective motive in the crime he 
commits. He is not intellectually insane, he is not 
essentially depraved, or morally mad, except in the 
light of his own destiny. He does not mean to do the 
world or himself any jpositive harm. He is simply a 
negative evil, devoid of motive for objective good, 
and is subjectively absorbed in, as well as objectively 
devoted to, his own pleasure, at the expense of time, 
and sometimes at the expense of other people's pocket- 
books and of other people's convenience. He is often 
a parasite on society, feeding like a louse upon some 
other man's head, and sucking like a leech some 
other man's blood. The time-killer feels that time is 
a bore if not killed, and he feels that the world has no 
pleasure if he cannot use it in his vocation of throw- 
ing away self in gratification, without gratitude or 
return. He feeds only on the bread of idleness, and 
his idle brain is the devil's workshop for all the so- 
cial ills we endure. 

How precious is time! "What vast importance the 
Bible jDuts upon it! and with what wonderful expres- 
sion has genius characterized it! Shakespeare pro- 
nounced it the "nurse and breeder of all good," and, 
abused, he might have pronounced it the nurse and 
breeder of all evil. Bishop Hall said: "The use of 
time is fafe.^^ Grood or bad, its use is fate; and all 
talent, energy, zeal, and efficiency in life's noblest call- 
ings are failures if time is not economically and wise- 
ly adjusted to effort, or effort to time. Feltham as- 
serted that time was the " chrysalis of eternity," and. 



KILLIISTG TIME TIME KILLING YOU. 55 

in all outcome of existence employed, eternity is the 
beautiful flower, so to speak, evolved from the bulb- 
ous root of time. The issues of eternity are wrapped 
up in the womb of this transient existence, and God 
alone can conceive of the vast importance which hangs 
upon the decision of an lK)ur or the action of a moment. 
God gives us the ability and Time furnishes us the 
occasions which, joined together, form the ten thou- 
sand opportunities of life for the achievement of 
good; and he who does not watch time and system- 
atize life according to its hour-glass will find his 
opportunities slipping away under the "inaudible 
and noiseless foot" of the old man with the glass 
and the scythe. 

Time will teach thee soon the truth, 
There are no birds in last year's nest. 
So said Longfellow to all who put off till to-morrow 
what ought to be done to-day. "Time should be 
counted by heart-throbs," says Martineau, and this 
splendid sentiment teaches that every moment of ex- 
istence is some precious casket in which may be found 
the jewel of some advance or advantage in life. 
Only those, however, who value life can value time; 
for life and time form an equation in which they are 
connected by parallel lines, indicating a like impor- 
tance and their absolute necessity to each other. Young 
never uttered a grander sentiment, a grander fact, 
than when he said: "Time wasted is existence; used, 
it is life." The time-killer simply ekes out an ex- 
istence, the time-employer lives out his life; and he 
finds "time enough," in the language of Goethe, "if 
well employed," One of the strangest things about 
the time-killer is that he finds always more time than 
he wants when dissatisfied, and too little time when 



56 KILLIISTG TIME — TIME KILLIN^G YOU. 

his pleasure is being indulged. The only man who 
really has time enough is the man who takes it as 
God's gift, and then employs it well. Then he neither 
regrets the past nor dreads the future, and the pres- 
ent to him is an ever-dwelling- hour of employment 
and peace. 

The Bible most strikingly touches this subject. Sol- 
omon says : " To every thing there is a season, and a 
time to every purpose under heaven." This indicates 
the proper adjustment of time to all the varied affairs 
of life, and it also indicates the division of time to the 
serious and the pleasant occupations which separately 
or reciprocally characterize our lives here below. 
God has given us day and night, Sabbath and week- 
day, winter and summer, spring-time and autumn, 
hours of rest and labor, the varieties of season and 
change, in order to diversify and beautify and make 
useful and happy our existence. He forbids overwork 
as well as idleness, and he has so adjusted time to all 
our conditions, however diverse or opposite, as to make 
life harmonious and sweet out of even its bitter toils 
and its perpetual pains. After all, there are more 
days of sunshine than of cloud, and life is so adjusted 
to time that there is a greater compensation to every 
loss, a brighter smile for every tear, a sweeter thrill 
for every woe, to him who adapts himself to his cir- 
cumstances, utilizes all his talents, and economizes 
his time according to its adjustment and division in a 
harmonious and well-employed existence. David rec- 
ognized that his times were all in God's hands, and 
while he recognized God's limitations set upon his 
time, he acknowledged God's adjustment and division 
of time to his conditions. Like every other gift, we 
should recognize our time from God. Hence Paul 



KILLING TIME — TIME KILLIN^G TOU. 57 

warns us that the "time is short," that "the night is 
at hand when no man can work." S^^eaking to the 
Ephesians, he tells them to walk circumspectly, not 
as fools, but as wise, " redeeming the time " — utiliz- 
ing it, not throwing it away, as fools are wont to do. 
In the same line Solomon urges : " Whatsoever thy 
hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is 
no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in 
the grave, whither thou goest." Time is so short and 
precious, the interests of eternity so momentous, that 
we must be in a hurry to fulfill the destiny ordained 
of time. "What we leave undone at the grave will 
never be done by us nor by others, for every man can 
alone do what is allotted for him to do. 

Life is real, life is earnest, 
And the grave is not its goal; 

" Dust thou art, to dust returnest," 
Was not written of the soul. 
How marvelous that a Christian should kill time! 
How dare one of God's children to waste his days! 
How many of them idle away their years in pleasure — 
in the dance-hall, the theater, at the card-table, at the 
watering-place, in travel, in the pursuit of worldly 
pleasure or profit — when God is robbed of their time, 
talent, and energy! The Christian has no time to 
lose for his own soul's, good, no moments to throw 
away in seeking the salvation of a perishing world, 
dying every hoin^ by thousands, and perishing " for 
lack of knowledge." As Paul says to us. all, "It is 
high time to awake out of sleep." We shoiild ever re- 
member that the time of Christ is at hand. His sec- 
ond coming is ever imminent, and the time of our de- 
parture is drawing near. There is a day coming when 
the great angel shall put one foot on land and the 



58 killi:n-g time— time killin"g you. 

other on the sea, and proclaim that time shall be no 
mo re- forever. 

Let us then be up and doing, 
With a heart for any fate; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 
Learn to labor and to wait. 

How fearful to -behold the millions of time-servers 
and time-killers! They feed on wind and float in the 
atmosphere like feathers. Their lives are phantoms, 
and their hope is ashes. Flitting through the gay and 
giddy circles of fashion and worldliness, they fill up 
the measure of the butterfly's day, and they drop out 
of life and notice as the transient morning-glory that 
blooms at dawn and dies at noon. U]Don the average, 
the time-killer never lives long. He does not fill out 
half his days. The law of life is labor, and labor, aft- 
er all, conquers all things and prolongs our average 
existence upon the principle that in the economy and 
wise adjustment of time lie the laws of health, longev- 
ity, and happiness. Some men shorten their days by 
labor, which is also a sin; but the time-killer, as the 
rule goes, gets soonest cut down. He dies of inertia, 
if not of dissipation and disease. He to whom time 
is a bore will waste away unobserved as the transient 
dream of his useless life. But this brings us to the 
consideration of the second part of this sketch: 
Time Killing You. 



-.0^.. II. ..o^._ 

"I have wasted time," says Shakespeare, "and now 
time doth waste me." As the old saying goes, 

and the iDoet just 



KILLI]SrG TIME TIME KILLING YOU. ^ 61 

quoted says again: "The whirligig of time brings in 
his reveng-es." How often the poor devotee to pleas- 
ure has had to exclaim in the words of Spenser : 

Too late I staid — forgive the crime — 

Unheeded flew the hours; 
How noiseless falls the foot of time, 

That only treads on flowers. 

Let me briefly sum up the ways in which time may 
waste or kill us, especially be revenged on those who 
kill him, and close : 

1. He cuts off our opportunities. "VYe may sleep 
and dream, frolic and dissipate, but he is sweeping 
away from us upon his winged wheels forever. 

2. He withers our hopes and blights our prospects. 
A lost opportunity has awakened the exclamation ten 
thousand times, " O for an hour! " 

What would the dying sinner give 
For one more Sabbath-day to live? 

3. Time wasted dries up all the fountains of life 
and happiness. How dissatisfied is the time-killer! 
and when he grows old how withered and blasted are 
all his affections, aspirations, and faculties for the 
business and enjoyment of life! 

4. Wasted time is the destroyer of fame, fortune, 
and honor which "might have been;" and "I might 
have been" is the torturing reflection, the bitterest 
regret of the time-killer, when all the golden days and 
opportunities of this short life have fled. 

5. Time thrown away robs the A^ery treasuries of 
heaven on the part of the ruined sinner or the idle 
Christian. How often a Felix procrastinates to all 
eternity the salvation of his soul ! and how often the 
indifferent and inert follower of Jesus loses millions 



62 KILLING TIME TIME KILL1I<^& YOU. 

of treasure and reward by putting off his splendid 
chances for doing good! 

6. Blighted time fades beauty and wrinkles our 
front with furrows untraced by the loveliness of well- 
spent and happy years. Old age which follows a pure 
and useful life is like a Corinthian pillar which, 
though crumbling and mutilated by time, is still rich 
with the traceries of beauty's chisel and grand in its 
dilapidation. 

7. Old Time comes along at last in the form of the 
grim reaper, Death, sets down his hour-glass, through 
which our sands of existence have run to the last 
grain, and with his scythe he cuts us down. This 
happens to us all, but he cuts off the lost and idled 
life of the sinner forever. Alas ! he cuts him in twain, 
to be mended no more for good, even in the resurrec- 
tion of the body. Alas, poor time-destroyer! to be 
at last destroyed! Truly has Wilcox said that "time 
unemployed is the greatest foe; " and well does Shake- 
speare denominate time as "the old justice that ex- 
amines all offenses." Parsons said of this " old jus- 
tice" that he was "the only righteous judge;" and 
the waster, the killer of time may rest assured that 
he will be arraigned at last before his bar. " They 
that drive time away," said another writer, " spur a 
free horse;" but they who ride that horse for naught, 
let me say, never paid so dear for their livery. 





ROGK OF AGES;. 

OB, 
INFIDELITY AND OVERZEAL. 

[^IIE illustration presents Christ under the form 
^~^^^ of the Eock of Ages. It is the Rephidim 
of Moses in the desert, smitten with his 
i^^y rod, gushing with a stream of water to fam- 
ishing Israel. Paul, alluding to this celebrat- 
ed bowlder, says, "That Rock was Christ;" 
and he calls it that " spiritual Rock that followed 
them," and of which they " drank." A more perfect 
figure of Christ's immutable character, of his life- 
giving and cleansing ethcacy, of his overshadowing 
and comforting grace, of his offensive and defensive 
impregnability, of his fundamental and constructive 
poAver, of his saving and sanctifying energy, could 
.not be employed. He is our "munitions of rocks," 
our Fortress and Refuge; "the Rock that is higher 
than I;" the "great Rock in a weary land;" the 
"Rock of Ages cleft for me," and out of whose smit- 
ten side flowed the fountain of blood and water, in 
which to be washed, and which to drink, is life and 
cleansing eternal. He is the lofty Petra upon which 
is erected the acropolis, the citadel of his Church, the 
constructive foundation laid upon him being the 

(65) 



66 EOCK OF AGES. 



prophets and apostles, of wliich still lie is the chief 
corner-stone, precious and elect, and against which the 
gates of hell shall not prevail. Peter may be a stone, 
a fragmentary joetros, along with all the other pro- 
phetic and apostolic stones, forming the constructive 
foundation of the Churches; but Christ, the Rock of 
Ages, is the great sub-basal and divine foundation 
upon which the whole building, constructive founda- 
tion and all, fitly framed together, is built. From 
him, as constructive corner-stone, come the beauty, 
strength, and unity of the structure; and from him, 
as the great fundamental Petra, come the vitality, sta- 
bility, and energy of " God's building." In the two 
great senses of the figure the poets sing: 

On Christ, tlie solid Rock, I stand; 
All other ground is sinking sand. 

And again: 

Eock of Ages, cleft for me, 

Let me hide myself ifi thee. 
Let us now notice some of the attendant details of 
the picture. On one side of the Rock you see a man 
trying to turn the Rock over with a lever. This man 
represents Infidelity bearing down with all his weight 
and might upon a broken stick, beneath whom is the 
yawning pit and Satan with outstretched hand to re- 
ceive him as he falls. Back of him, and in the dis- 
tance, is an infidel club-house; and between him and 
the club-house is an infidel battery, representing the 
artillery of the ages pounding away at the great and 
immovable Rock. The guns are manned by the In- 
gersolls, the Tom Paines, the Humes, and Rousseaus, 
and Renans, and Strausses, and Voltaires; while the 
Spencers, the Huxleys, the Darwins, the John Stuart 
Mills, and others, head the crowd which shouts on the 



ROCK or AGES. 67 



supposed work of demolition to the mighty Fortress 
of our salvation. The proportion is partly displayed 
in the size. of the Rock' as compared with the insig- 
nificant battery and the diminutive leaders who are 
assaulting it with their popguns, or trying to turn it 
over with a broken pipe-stem as it were. It is as if a 
regiment of prairie-dogs were assailing Gibraltar, or 
a flea trying to undermine Pike's Peak; and from this 
comparison we can get at the precise idea of the dif- 
ference between the force of the Rock and the forces 
which oppose it. The thunders and lightnings of the 
centuries have played in harmless fury about the sum- 
mit of Mont Blanc, and so infidelity fights against 
Christ. There are not forces enough in nature com- 
bined, unless supernaturally employed, to knock down 
the peak of Chimborazo; and all the powers of earth 
and hell united cannot chip a fragment from the Rock 
of Ages. As in nature so in grace. The storms have 
raged for centuries of untold commotion and opposi- 
tion; but the hills and mountains remain with un- 
shaken top and immutable base. The clouds and tem- 
pests come and go, but there they stand as before; 
and so Christ, the eternal Rock, comes out brighter, 
grander, and loftier from every conflict with error and 
falsehood. Prize on, little infidel; your little stick 
will break and drop you finally into the arms of your 
father and into the bottomless pit, from which you 
shall never escape. Shoot on, little popgun battery; 
your little artillery will exhaust your ammunition in 
vain; your guns will be hushed and spiked, and the 
only force they will ever have will be to kick infidel- 
ity, backward into hell, where it belongs. "Who ever 
fought God and prospered? 

On the other side of the Rock, and sheltered in its 



68 KOCK OF AGES. 



rear, is the Church and the people of God. Christ 
stands before them in the progressive and resistless 
and immutable march of Truth eternal, and the house 
of God can never fall nor fail in his overshadowing 
power. You will notice, however, on this side of the 
Hock, pushing with all his weight and might, a little 
preacher, who represents overzeal. He is trying to 
keep infidelity from turning the Rock of Ages over, 
or to keep the infidel batteries from knocking it down. 
He has a zeal in this direction without kjiowledge, 
and he represents a class of preachers and other peo- 
ple presumptuously defending Christianity against 
every attack which comes along, always alarmed for 
its stability and progress, ever gloomy about the fut- 
ure outcome of religion. He is pre-eminently a pes- 
simist. Hence he is always preaching or writing 
about infidelity instead of preaching the gospel. He 
wars with might and main to show that Ingersoll is 
mistaken about the mistakes of Moses, and he is per- 
]3etually trying to overturn Spencer's " First Princi- 
ples " or Darwin's "Descent of Man." He has the 
gravest apprehensions that the Rock of Ages will be 
turned over or be battered down, especially if he does 
not hold it up; and he feels that he is called and or- 
dained for the set defense of the gospel against the 
world. In most cases he advertises infidelity instead 
of rendering any efficient defense of the truth, and 
often he puts tangled brains to thinking more favor- 
ably of Ingersoll and Tom Paine than before. In 
fact, the simple and powerful assertion of the gospel 
is its best defense in the main; and its exemplification 
or illustration in Christian life and character is its 
most unanswerable argument. Let the light shine; 
let the Sun of righteousness beam out in full-orbed 



KOCK OF AGES. 69 



glory, and tlie moles and bats of infidelity will hie 
away into the congenial atmosphere of their midnight 
habitation and association. Preach the word and 
practice the life and ;vvear the character of Christ, and 
there will be but little or occasional need for airing 
infidelity. Let the sun shine, and the plants and 
flowers of Christianity will spring up and bloom and 
grow and fructuate in spite of all the clouds and 
storms of infidelity and atheism. 

By all this it is not meant that no defense is ever 
to be made against infidelity. There are times when 
heavy blows may be struck, and there are writers and 
orators who are specially gifted in offense and defense 
against all forms of error and skepticism. There are 
some " set," as it were, for these things, who can con- 
tend not only earnestly, but skillfully, for the faith 
" delivered once for all to the saints." J^evertheless, 
no one preacher can afford to be always hammering 
away upon any one subject before his congregation, 
even infidelity; and a man makes a great mistake 
when he leaves the impression that he is ever forebod- 
ing the failure of the cause, from any given stand- 
point, if he does not defend it. When necessary, Grod 
has always raised up leaders for special and revolu- 
tionary purposes; but such leaders have ever been 
like Moses — modest and shrinking before their re- 
sponsibilities. They trusted God and were guided 
by his counsel ; and of all the men who ever felt their 
humble insufficiency they were the men. They never, 
never dreamed that the Rock would turn over if it 
were not for them; and they never formulated creeds 
nor organized institutions for selfish and ambitious 
l^urposes, claiming themselves to be the greater part 
of the work they set on foot or accomplished. There 



70 . ROCK or AGES. 



are two kinds of leadership not of God: 1. Those 
who fanatically imagine God could not get along 
without them. 2. Those who wrap themselves up in 
a bundle of peculiarities in the name of Jesus, and 
set out to build for themselves. The true leader/ 
raised up of God, is least when he is greatest; and 
when he would rule, he becomes the servant of all. 
He is, like Paul, the servant of Christ and the serv- 
ant of his brethren for Christ's sake. 

So much for the little fellows on both sides, both 
of wdiom imagine themselves of greatest importance 
as for and against the Rock. Thank God, the Rock 
will stand, whosoever presumptuously opposes or de- 
fends it; and it will stand, whether it have any de-, 
fense or not, against all the opposition of this world! 

" How shall one chase a thousand, and tAvo put ten 
thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and 
the Lord had shut them up? For their rock is not as 
our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges." 
" There is none holy as the Lord : for there is none 
beside thee : neither is there any rock like our God." 
He is the "Rock of our salvation" and of our "de- 
fense;" and while we do stand up to our Rock in of- 
fense and defense, yet we need more the protection of 
our Rock than the Rock needs of us. In our defense 
of this Rock we should feel that Ave are sheltered in 
it as our strong toAver and fortress, and we should re- 
alize that our defense results from the very protection 
by which we are sheltered from the darts of the en- 
emy. We " stand up for Jesus " by standing in with 
Jesus ; and Avhen Ave imagine that we are standing up 
for him, independent of his defense, Ave are about as 
insignificant as the little fellow on the other side of 
the Rock trying to turn it over. It is hard to tell 



KOCK OF AGES. 71 



which is the bigger fool — Ingersoll, with his little lever 
of infidelit}^, on one side trying to turn it over, or the 
overzealous and presumptuous little preacher on the 
other trying to hold it up. 

Finally, our enemies should remember that this Rock 
of ours is a Rock of offense. Jesus tells us that who- 
soever stumbles or falls upon this Rock shall be 
broken to pieces; and upon whomsoever this Rock 
shall fall he shall be ground into powder. Terrible 
and awful catastrophe to a lost and ruined soul! The 
wicked shall call in that great and notable day upon 
the rocks of the hills and mountains to fall upon them 
and hide them from the face of an avenging God. 
These rocks will not answer to the call, and even if 
they did, they could not hide the sinner from God's 
all-burning eye. There is a Rock, however, that will 
fall upon them, not to hide them, but to crush them, 
already broken, to infinitesimal dust in the misery of 
everlasting perdition. We have seen people crushed 
in this life. We have seen melancholy and woe settle 
down upon the unfortunate, the discouraged, and the 
hopeless; but Ave can have no conception of the crush- 
ing wretchedness and despair of an eternal and un- 
mitigated hell — such a hell as the Iv'ew Testament de- 
scribes in the very language of Jesus. Deliver me 
from " the wrath of the Lamb! " There is something 
infinitely awful in that expression. ]N"othing is so fu- 
rious as human love injured and abused; and nothing 
can be so fatal and damning as divine love and mercy 
trampled on through life and finally and forever 
spurned by the impenitent and unbelieving sinner. 
Think of God's last overture rejected, his last loving- 
appeal scorned, his last cry of mercy unheeded! Then 
comes the wrath of the Lamb. Then comes the crush- 



72 ROCK OF AGES. 



ing fall of that mighty Rock which will grind to pow- 
der every enemy of the cross. Alas ! the awful doom 
which brings the lost soul under the final crash and 
crush of this Rock of Ages! 

To deatli — an endless hell — tlie soul is sent, 

And this is called " eternal pimishm ent ! " 

We need not rack these awful words, 'tis said, 

Nor make them shriek out fierce their import dread; 

At best, the hell of best and noblest man 

Is God's unmixed, eternal, hopeless ban. 

Forever? Yes, forever writes its name 

On every tongue that tastes the quenchless fl^me, 

On every link of darkness' binding chain, 

On every sigh of woe and cry of pain, 

On every memory's past reflection sad. 

On every hope of future — hopeless mad. 

On every leap of downward flight inclined. 

And every bent of evil heart and mind. 

O God! this doom let men forego and live; 

Why will they die, when thou wouldst heaven give? 

Amazing grace! the gift of life above! 

Amazing madness! man rejects thy love. 

To reap through sinful pleasures stung with pains 

Eternal woe engulfed in endless flames ! 

Awake thy Church! that sleeps o'er men insane. 

The torch relume of Truth o'er hill and plain; 

O save us, God! by hope of life eternal, 

Nor let us reach this doom of death infernal 




SLA/IDER. 

P^HE slanderer is well represented as a serpent 
with a characteristic human head, coiled 
in the grass, striking with an arrow-tipped 
tongue into the bleeding heart of its victim. 
I should have given it the wings of a bat, since 
slander flies as well as crawls, but I overlooked 
this feature of my original design. The serpent with 
his venom and his ire, 'with his slimy, slippery folds 
and his noiseless crawl, with his deadly coil and fatal 
fang, is the only fit emblem of the man or the woman 
Avho stabs and kills you in character. Jealousy and 
envy, prejudice and malignity are the sac of poison 
under the slanderer's tongue, from which he feeds his 
deadly fangs and which pierce your good name. Love 
and honor never engage in this vile business; but the 
slanderer is a total stranger to these noble instincts 
of the human breast. He hates his superior, or else, 
without malice or revenge, he has a reckless disregard 
for truth and honest reputation, for every thing lofty 
and good about him. The neighborhood gossip has 
nothing better to do than to gratify an overweening 
desire to talk about his or her neighbor, and such peo- 
ple seem to find a fiendish delight in their base voca- 
tion. A bit of scandal is a sugar-plum which they 
roll in their mouth and divide with each other; and 

(75) 



76 SLANDER. 

the plum grows as it rolls from mouth to mouth, like 
the five loaves and two little fishes with which the 
Master fed five thousand hungry souls and had twelve 
baskets full of the fragments which remained. Truly 
does the great poet style it, by way of personification : 

Slander, 
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue 
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile. 

It is impossible, with an ordinary sense of the hu- 
mane, to comprehend or appreciate the nature and 
character of the slanderer. We can see how men in 
the heat of passion can slay their fellows, how hun- 
ger and penury can steal, how the wreck of habit can 
debauch himself; but there are souls too lofty, hearts 
too pure, to understand how this monster of all iniq- 
uity can ruin the reputation or destroy the character 
of an innocent being. How infinitely worse than 
theft or murder or arson! Inimitably has Shakespeare 
made Othello to say : 

Good name, in man or woman, dear, my .lord, . 

Is the immediate jewel of their sonls. 

Who steals my purse steals trash, 'tis something, nothing; 

'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; 

But he that filches me of my good name 

Eobs me of that which not enriches him, 

And makes me poor indeed. 
The victim of slander often suffers more than theft 
or murder, as, with a consciousness, of innocence, he 
endures a life-time of shame and contumely without 
the power of rectification or defense. I once knew a 
minister slandered, and though his slanderer upon a 
dying bed confessed his crime, yet this man of God 
• had to quit the pulpit and live and die under a cloud. 
Confidence once lost under a charge of great turpi- 
tude can never be entirely restored; and though one 



sla:n-deti. 77 



may be vindicated, yet the sense of character lost is 
so keen and delicate that many will suspicion still 
the victim of slander, once blackened, in spite of vin- 
dication. It is hard to get the smell of burned clothes 
otf, and people will associate you, justly or unjustly, 
with your reputation long after the stain has been ob- 
literated from your character. You may kill the sting 
of the serpent that wounded you; you may heal the 
wound, but some people will always be examining the 
scar. It takes great force of character, irrepressible 
energy and ability, with popularity, to stand or over- 
come a serious slander, and but few ever override pop- 
ular odium and disfavor thus created. Our friends 
may hold us innocent and stand by us, but the world 
will think of the dove as soiled and the lamb as 
spotted. Our enemies especially will keep the skele- 
ton of a dead slander upon our track, and but few of 
them are generous enough to grant, much less vindi- 
cate, our innocence. 

There is but little protection against slander, and 
usually the slanderer is an assassin and a coward, 
made so by his immunity from legal restraint. He 
generally has some Avorthless character in front of 
him in order to evade both legal and personal ac- 
countability, and often the newspaper becomes the 
most dangerous medium of his calumny. Such is the 
eager love of scandal, so innumerable, doubtful, and 
irresponsible are its soin^ces ainong the masses, that it 
is almost next to impossible to win a suit for dam- 
ages or to criminally prosecute the slanderer. A slan- 
der is of all things the hardest to prove in court or to 
punish when proved, and consequently the shot-gun 
and the revolver are often resorted to among men 
as the only remedy. Murder and slander, even when 



78 SLAXDEK. 



gross and horrible, now often go unpunished. Your 
life and character are least protected, especially 
against money and influence. A wealthy criminal 
cannot be punished in this country for any crime ex- 
cept theft or embezzlement. 'No position or influ- 
ence can trample on the pocket nerve. Take my life 
or my good name, but don't touch my money! The 
world will penitentiary you sure, and it would often 
take your life if it could. Hence, so much unpun- 
ished murder and slander result in mob law and per- 
sonal violence in this country. It would seem that a 
high state of civilization would protect, first of all, 
life and character; but money and self-interest are as 
yet the chief objects of protection. In fact, at this 
time this is about the only thing among us involving 
American ^^ protection.'' Money and self are our house- 
hold gods, and the love of these is the root of all our 
evils. Our character and our religion, the Sabbath 
and the Bible in the public schools, once the pride 
and glory of our country, are all dominated by our 
selfish interests and pleasures, and subordinated to the 
" mammon of unrighteousness." It is no wonder that 
life and character have no chance against the influ- 
ence of money and business. 

It is interesting to note the baseness of spirit and 
method which characterizes the cowardly assassin 
who stabs your character. "What a passion some have 
for slander! How multiform and subtle are the ways 
and means employed! What a portraiture Hannah 
More has painted of the villain and his art! 

The hint malevolent, the look oblique, 
The obvious satire, or implied, dislike, 
The sneer equivocal, the harsh reply, 
And. all the cruel language of the eye; 



SLAISTDER. 79 

The artful injury, whose venomed dart 
Scarce wouuds the hearing while it stabs the heart; 
The guarded phrase whose meaning kills, yet told 
The list'ner wonders how you thought it cold; 
These, and a thousand griefs minute as these. 
Corrode our comfort and destroy our ease. 

Among the meanest of slanderers often is the man 
who shrugs his shoulders, winks his eye, cuts with a 
sinister smile, stabs with a glance, and deals in " buts " 
and "ifs;" and there are scores of slanders daily per- 
petrated which you cannot answer by logic, impeach 
by evidence, nor touch by law — vile, cowardly, and 
pusillanimous. In the same strain of Hannah More 
Pope thus portrays this ravenous passion for devour- 
ing character: 

The world with calumny abounds. 

The whitest virtue slander wounds ; 

There are those whose joy is, night and day, 

To take a character away; 

Eager from rout to rout they haste, 

To blast the generous and the chaste ; 

And hunting reputation down. 

Proclaim their triumph through the town. 

This is the spirit and these the methods of the moral 
assassin engaged in the vilest business of mankind, 
and we are often astonished at the great and respect- 
able people engaged in it. There are even some 
preachers who gossip and scandalize and slander, and 
sometimes whole Churches are rent asunder by the 
tongue, the unruly member of which James so potent- 
ly warns God's people. Slander is an evil genius, a 
cunning iiend which stalks its prey at noonday and 
springs upon its victims at midnight. Perhaps the 
finest characterization of the slanderer ever drawn 
was penned by Pollok: 



80 SLAATDER. 



'Twas slander filled her mouth with lying words; 
Slander, the foulest whelp of sin: the man 
In whom this spirit entered was undone. 
His tongue was set on fire of hell; his heart 
Was black as death; his legs were faint with haste 
To propagate the lie his soul had framed; 
His pillow was the peace of families 
Destroyed, the sigh of innocence reproached, 
Broken friendship, and the strife of brotherhoods ; 
Yet did he spare his sleep, and hear the clock 
Number the midnight watches, on his bed 
Devising mischief more; and early rose, 
And made hellish meals of good men's names. 
From door to door you might have seen him speed, 
Or placed amidst a group of gaping fools, 
And whispering in their ears with foul lips. 
Peace fled the neighborhood in which he made 
His haunts; and, like a moral pestilence. 
Before his breath the healthy shoots and blooms 
Of social joy and happiness decayed. 
Fools only in his company were seen, 
And those forsaken of God, and to themselves 
Given up; the prudent shunned him and his house. 
As one who had a deadly, moral plague. 
And fain would all have shunned him at the day 
Of judgment; but in vain. All who gave ear 
"With greediness, or willingly their tongues 
Made herald to his lies, around him waited; 
While on his face, thrown back by injured man, 
In characters of ever blushing shame 
Appeared ten thousand slanders all his own. 
Such the spirit and such the doom of the slanderer 
at the judgment of God. Deep down in hottest hell, 
where dwells the foulest devil, will be the eternal 
abode of the serpent-tongued slanderei". 

The treatment of slander is an important consider- 
ation. The slandered man occupies a difficult posi- 
tion. He needs most of all the grace of patience and 
forbearance, of fortitude and bravery. It is unfort- 



SLANDEK. 81 



"unate that most slanders have some foundation in 
fact. Few of them are cut out of whole cloth. Some 
imprudence, inadvertence, or mistake on our part 
gives the enemy a club to hit us with — a sample out 
of which to cut a coat to fit us with. Often the beau- 
tiful and chaste, but imprudent, young lady thus gets 
into trouble; and so of the unskillful and unguarded 
minister, where no wrong was dreamed of. But the 
great question is: How shall I treat scandal and slan- 
der? JSTever be in too big a hurry, and never pay any 
attention unless dignity and duty demand vindication ; 
and when vindication is impossible, wait on God. 
N^ever brush off fresh mud from your clothes. Let it 
dry. Slander Avill run its course after awhile, and 
though we may never be pronounced innocent by all, 
yet character untainted will shine again like the sun 
through the clouds, even if the sky never becomes al- 
together clear. Socrates said: "Slanders do not hurt 
me, because they do not hit me; " but we do not all 
have the rugged mountain grandeur of Socrates. 
Slanders do hit and hurt some innocent people, some- 
times rend families. Churches, and neighborhoods, 
leaving for awhile the desolation of the cyclone in 
their track; and often it takes manhood and Chris- 
tianity to leave aside the revolver and the tardy law 
and wait until the storm passes over. Of course there 
are a multitude of little things which none may notice, 
for noticing them would only magnify and give im- 
portance where importance did not exist. Beech- 
erwell said: "Life would be a perpetual flea-hunt if a 
man had to run down all the innuendoes, inveracities, 
insinuations, and suspicions which are uttered against 
him." " The surest method against scandal," says a 
writer, "is to live it down by perseverance in well- 



82 SLANDER. 



doing, and by prayer to God that he will cure the dis- 
tempered mind of those who traduce and injure us." 
After all, God and time and well-doing are the best 
remedy for slander, so far as it may ever be cured. 
Do good for evil, bless for cursing, forgive and for- 
bear — this is the cure of Jesus, and this is the most 
unfailing of all the remedies a mortal ever yet applied 
to enmity. After all, slander, like other ills, is one of 
the Christian's crosses, and, well borne, it inures above 
all afiiictions to the purest chastening and develop- 
ment of Christian life, l^o cross ever won a brighter 
crown, if borne well for Jesus' sake. It is comfort 
to know that the birds pick at the best and highest 
fruit which grows upon the tree. The greatest and 
best people in the world are slandered; and only the 
good and the useful can be. Of course there is a 
negative, good-for-nothing good of which none speak 
evil. To such Jesus spake when. he said, "Woe unto 
you when all men speak well of you." 

Slander has another good office : it makes the true 
man examine himself to see whether or not the things 
said of him be so. I think it was Philip of Macedon 
who said that he never grew angry at slanders or scan- 
dals; for if they were true, he tried to improve his life 
above them; if false, he would ultimately shine all the 
brighter by them. This is often true of the great, 
not always true of the little; but, as a rule, it is true 
that the result of an exploded slander, or a slander 
lived down, is to purify and brighten the character of 
the slandered, though he may never regain his lost 
reputation or position in the eyes of everybody. Tup- 
per here gives us good advice: 
If a liar accuseth thee of evil, be not swift to answer; 
You give him license for awhile ; it shall be thine honor afterward. 



<l, 



ll 1' 




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•^J 




KINDNESS AND GRUELTY. 



f^isT the two illustrations before us we see kind- 
i\^5^ ness and cruelty contrasted as the two 
great forces by which men seek to rule the 
^:^ world. In the first i^icture behold a little 
girl with her bright, beaming face radiant with 
smiles, her little hands playing upon the head 
of a lion, which seems grateful and docile under the 
magic touch of kindness. Her little foot is upon the 
head of a hissing serpent; near by stands the lamb, 
which is the symbol of innocence and purity, while 
above her head the dove, which is the symbol of love 
and gentleness, poises with the olive-branch of peace 
in its mouth. The fierce and ravenous lion is brought 
into contact with every element and principle of kind- 
ness, which persuades, insinuates, and conquers by 
love instead of compulsion and brutality. IS'othing 
but love can tread upon the serpent, and nothing but 
love can develop that period in the outcome of our 
Christianity when the lamb and the lion shall lie down 
together, and a little child shall lead them. I saw a 
picture not long since in which a woman had a school 
of attentive and listening tigers, and though symbolic 
of the great truth of kindness and education as con- 
querors over our passions and appetites, yet it is a 
concrete fact that education and kindness have made 

(85) 



KIJfDNESS A]S^D CRUELTY. 



the lion and the tiger play like kittens about the feet 
of their trainers. I once read of a woman who kept 
two lions about her house — her back premises — as doc- 
ile and frolicksome as spaniels; and it was not until 
the law compelled her that she confined her young- 
pets in a cage. There are many instances in history 
of the docility and love of the lion trained up at the 
hands of kind and loving masters. 

See in the second picture of our illustration exact- 
ly the opposite method of ruling the animal world. 
There's a big man beating a little mule with a cudgel, 
and observe that the mule rebels and demonstrates 
his opposition to force by the flight of his heels in the 
air. We have seen this picture in living* tableaux a 
thousand times, and we have but to witness the dif- 
ference in the training of domestic animals among 
men every day. Take the mean hireling of a mean 
master, and he makes a mean mule; and one-half of 
the difficulties and disasters resulting from the em- 
ployment of animals originate in their abuse or their 
ill training. Thousands of lives are lost or limbs 
broken every year by animals made vicious by their 
more ignorant, brutal, and vicious masters. Cruelty 
to animals has become an obnoxious misdemeanor 
punishable by law, and this is one grand step in the 
direction of education, both to the brute that beats 
and the beast that kicks and runs away or perishes 
from cruelty. Of course some animals, as well as 
men, are more vicious and unmanageable than others. 
A degree of force often has to accompany education. 
The rod of authority has to lie behind the throne upon 
which even love wields her scepter; but in all train- 
ing or development of man or beast the rod and the 
cudgel should be the last resort, and then only wielded 






ii .|, 



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hmm^mr-vm^^^-' 



KIISTDlSrESS AND CRUELTY. 89 

in the hands of loving--kindness and tender mercy. 
It was once the custom to make the prison-house the 
very synonym of cruelty; but our Christian civiliza- 
tion has entered the doors thereof with the out- 
stretched hand of mercy and kindness, and thousands 
have been reformed in the very dungeons of demo- 
niacal iniquity and misery. The laws of a country 
should be executed, but justice in human affairs should 
always be tempered with mercy, especially as regards 
the methods and manners of treating the criminal and 
the beast. 

Let me say that love is always the ruler, for " love 
is kind." The preacher, the jDarent, the teacher, the 
king on the throne, every man in position or author- 
ity over his fellows, who has sought in patience and 
forbearance to exercise this most excellent of all 
graces, has learned the cumulative and progressive 
value of loving-kindness, accompanied by firmness 
and decision. The venomous serpent, the wild beast, 
the savage breast, the hardened criminal, the rebell- 
ious subject, the obdurate child, the sluggish student 
— all yield at last to persistent argument and persua- 
sive gentleness. A refractory sailor, who had been 
whipped a dozen times, burst into tears and became 
obedient when the captain said: " Let us forgive him." 
That little superintendent of the penitentiary who 
stood before a fierce band of convicts broken loose 
and determined to fight their way out, about to rush 
in desperation against the armed guard, in spite of all 
threats and warnings — that little man, with a reed in 
his hand, coolly and kindly pleading for submission, 
was mightier than a company of soldiers with fixed 
bayonets and double charges. That teacher before 
her rough and stubborn boy, exhorting with stream- 



90 KINDNESS AND CRUELTY. 

ing eyes and agonizing heart to good behavior and 
studious habits, outdid all the terrors and teaching of 
the rod. She made a man and a scholar of him when 
all else had failed. The institutions and governments 
which have dealt only in force are all dead, or dying, 
to - day. Proud Kome, the mistress of the world, 
whose organized power crushed all the dominions of 
the earth, is dead, and so are the Babylonian and 
Macedonian and the Medo-Persian Empires of tyr- 
anny and cruelty dead. The day of the tyrant and 
the conqueror by force of arms is departed, and 
the spirit of the age in which we live is concession 
and compromise, resisting every encroachment which 
would dominate and destroy a weak and helpless 
neighbor. 

"They that take the sword," says Christ, "shall 
perish by the sword;" and this proposition has been 
well established among men and nations. ]N^on-re- 
sistance, personal kindness and love to even an enemy, 
the return of good for evil, have proved to be the rule 
of empire which sways the human heart and blesses 
and gladdens the world as never before in its singu- 
lar and changeful history. The people who rule this 
world to-day are loving Christians; and the mission- 
aries of India have done more for that people than 
the Grovernment of England; nay, the missionaries 
have guided England into the only policy at last by 
Avhich India can best be ruled, elevated, and blessed. 
So it has been with all the benighted regions of this 
earth, however opened up by the conquest of arms and 
education. Christianity has turned the cannibal of 
the Fiji Islands, the Esquimaux of the polar regions, 
the wild Patagonian of South America, the benighted 
African of the jungle, the savage and the barbarian 



KINDNESS AND CRUELTY. 91 

of every clime and country, into an intelligent and civ- 
ilized citizen under a good and wholesome government; 
and the kind-hearted, loving, self-sacrificing mission- 
ary is the world's greatest benefactor and noblest civ- 
ilizer on the pages of history. We were all once bar- 
barians and heathens. The German, the Gaul, the 
Saxon a few centuries ago were bowing at the shrines 
of Druidism, the sternest and crudest system of spir- 
itual tyranny Avhich ever dominated the human mind; 
and we can but give Christ the glory, wdiose missiona- 
ries carried the cross and the gospel to our rude ances- 
tors. Christ reigns over the world by love, and in pro- 
portion as pure and primitive Christianity plants the 
banner of the cross upon the shores of a country does 
it learn to rule itself under that generous and equable 
dissemination of liberty and light which teaches men 
individually to respect and love one another. 

Lamartine truly said that "kindness is virtue it- 
self." Kindness alone can give birth to kindness, 
and through its hol}^ efficacy can purity ever be in- 
culcated from one heart to another. 'No true refor- 
mation ever took place under force and cruelty; and 
the rod of power never yet drove honor or true sub- 
mission to right into the breast of a human being. 
The best educators, the noblest of evangelizers, as 
well as the mightiest of rulers, are kindness and love; 
and virtue, holiness, and piety best flourish in their 
atmosphere. " Clemency alone," said the heathen 
Claudianus, "makes us equal with the gods;" and 
even among us Christians nothing makes us so God- 
like as loving - kindness. Harshness and violence 
close men's hearts to all good, and even the denunci- 
atory preacher of the gospel has no power over his 
audience. " Yinegar never catches flies." It Avas 



92 KINDXESS AXD CRUELTY. 

not the cold north wind, but the sunshine, according 
to the fable, which made the traveler take off his coat. 
" Heaven in sunshine will requite the kind," said By- 
ron; but, first of all, it is the kind who make the 
sunshine of heaven to fill the hearts of men. "I was 
a very bad boy at school," said an old deacon to me 
not long since; "but," said he, "I had a kind teach- 
er, and that teacher's kindness changed my life and 
made me what I am to-day." He said his mother died 
when he was ^^oung, and his father was a cold, stern, 
and deuiure man. He shed no sunshine at home, and 
for every infraction of parental rule he was whipped 
and cuffed. The kind-hearted teacher taught him 
virtue and manhood by love, exercised forbearance 
and forgiveness toward his faults, and through patient 
endurance and culture gave him the inspiration of 
hope and promise in life which made him a man. 
God alone knows what kindness and love have done 
and are doing for this poor, sin-cursed world. 

Let us be kind to one another. ^Nothing pays so 
well in return, and nothing is so cheap in its invest- 
ment. How often has this thought come home to me 
when I have remembered the beautiful Avords of "Whit- 
tier! 

A little word in kindness spoken, 
A motion, or a tear. 

Has often healed the heart that's broken 
And made a friend sincere. 

A word, a look, has crushed to earth 
Full many a budding flower, 

"Which, had a smile but owned its birth, 
Would bless life's darkest hour. 

Then deem it not an idle thing 
A pleasant word to speak ; 

The face you wear, the thought you bring 
A heart may heal or break. 



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RIP ¥M WIRKLE. 



have all heard the story of Rip Yan Win- 
kle, who loved his beer too well, who fell 
asleep in the Catskill Mountains on a hunt- 
ing expedition, who slept twenty years, who 
rhen he awoke was unconscious of the time 
by, notAvithstanding the stock had rotted 
from his gun-barrel, and notwithstanding the skeleton 
of his dog lay by him all bleached and in decay, and his 
own hair had grown white and as long as his body. 
He went back to his old village, but it had forgotten 
him, and the places which once knew him knew him 
no more; and such were the changes that he knew 
them not. Family, friends, and all whom he had for- 
merly and familiarly known, had passed away, and yet 
all things, as they had heen^ were fresh in the mind of old 
Rip, the awakened sleeper. He had slept too long, 
and his sleep had thrown him twenty years behind the 
age, all unconscious of the rapid roll of old Time's 
winged wheel. So thousands sleep to-day, upon all 
questions of progressive development. There are a 
few people in our country yet who have never seen 
a railroad, nor heard the whistle of the locomotive. 
I saw several years ago, a man from the mountains of 
N^orth Carolina who had ridden horseback all the way 
to MemiDhis. He had never seen a steam-boat, and as 
7 C95) 



96 RIP VAN WIjSTKLE. 

he stood near a little stern-wheel steamer he said to 
me : " That's a joe darter, an't she? " I told him it was 
a very small boat, but he couldn't believe it until pres- 
ently I pointed him to the JS'atchez, just coming in 
sight, and as she landed the old JN^orth Carolinian 
opened his eyes and his mouth, and gaped and won- 
dered with astonishment. 

The picture for this sketch represents the man worse 
behind the times than any other man in the world. 
It is the old Rip Yan Winkle Anti-missionary. He 
sits upon his porch in the evening as the sun sinks be- 
hind the western hills. All is favorable to reverie and 
dream, to the thoughtful and imaginative mind. He 
is not an idiot, however illiterate, and he is not nec- 
essarily an illiterate man. He has been reading his 
Bible all his life, and, in spite of verse and sermon to 
the contrary, he has been persuading himself that the 
cause of Missions is a fraud, especially Foreign Missions. 
He has been taught and has been teaching that if God 
wanted the heathen converted he would send whom- 
soever he would, without money and without price, to 
the benighted nations. He has not believed in con- 
ventions and boards and man-sent missionaries, and he 
has not believed in systematic methods of raising means 
at any cost of agencies, or otherwise, to take the peo- 
ple's " cash." He has persuaded himself that agents 
and boards and missionaries are stealing the contri- 
butions raised for them; and that God does not and 
cannot bless these men-inspired methods. He reads 
the Bible in vain which says, " Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the gospel to every creature," and he dis- 
believes the marvelous account of missionary zeal and 
results in Ongole and Burmah and Cuba and Mexico 
and the Fiji Islands. He doesn't believe a word of 



RIP VAN WINKLE. 97 

it, and he pays no heed to the Macedonian cry, " Come 
over, and help us." ISTo reason, no argument, no per- 
suasion can move him; and though the vision of the 
helpless heathen, as in the picture, comes often before 
him, he turns from it and banishes the apparition- from 
his sight. He is a great dreamer and visionary in 
religion. He spiritualizes every thing, and has much 
confidence in signs and sounds and visions; but this 
is one vision he never allows to stand long before him. 
He can't away with the heathen. He has slept too long, 
as his long beard and hair indicate; and he will live 
and die and go before God with the dread confession 
that he spent a life in blindness over the grandest is- 
sue of any age. God forbid that I should live and die 
an anti-missionary! 

This brings us to the serious and solemn thought 
that the greatest issue of the nineteenth century is 
Missions. The world has been eighteen centuries open- 
ing the gates of the nations to the gospel. Primitive 
Christianity made grand strides in this direction, carry- 
ing the gospel to all the provinces of the Roman Em- 
pire; but the regions beyond were never reached un- 
til modern times. Besides this, primitive Christianity 
itself was ingulfed in the "Dark Ages," driven to the 
valleys and the fastnesses of mountains, until the Ref- 
ormation of the sixteenth century ; but since that time 
the evangelist and the missionary have gone forth to ev- 
ery accessible land. The sword of conquest, the cannon 
o^ England, have opened gradually every dark shore 
and continent to the Bible; and daring this century, for 
the first time in the history of the world, every nation 
has received the messengers of Jesus Christ. The walls 
of China have crumbled — the hardest nation to reach 
beneath the sun — and the black continent of Africa 



98 RIP va:n^ wixkle. 

has been explored and opened by the missionary him- 
self, and by such men as Bowen, Livingstone, Stanley, 
Baker, and others. It took the civilization of mod- 
ern times, springing from the Reformation of Luther 
and others, to make the world accessible to the gos- 
pel; and the man or the denomination opposed to 
Missions is blind to the signs of the times in which 
he lives and in opposition to the sublimest issue of 
the nineteenth century. The issues of slavery, polyg- 
amy, war, prohibition, religious and political liberty, 
all these are grand, and in part settled; but the last 
great triumph and consummation of Christ in this age 
is the sending of the gospel to all the nations of the 
earth, and all other issues, begun or settled, are but 
auxiliary to this. This of all other issues is the great- 
est from several stand-points : 

1. It fulfills the sublimest prophecy of modern times 
— the promise of God that his Son should have "the 
heathen for his inheritance " and the " uttermost parts 
of the earth for his possession," and that even dark 
Ethiopia should stretch forth her hands unto God. 

2. It is in obedience to the grandest law of God 
ever enacted : " Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to every creature." This is the commission 
of Christ — universal to man's universal need and based 
upon the Christian's universal duty; and the Chris- 
tian, or denomination, which does not love " all the 
world " for which Christ died is not catholic in spirit 
and cannot have the world in catholic possession. 
Our love has to be three hundred and sixty degrees 
of the earth's circumference in order to be missionary, 
and if it is not missionary, it is nothing — yea, it is 
Rip Yan "Winkle, and dead asleep. 

3. This issue of Missions is the o'randest of the nine- 



KIP va:n^ winkle. 99 

teenth century, because it brings in the sublimest con- 
summation of the age, the second coming of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. His promise is that wlien the gospel 
has been preached as a witness to all the nations then 
"the end shall come," and when the end comes he 
comes. The time is not far off, for the missionary is 
going rapidly everywhere, and alas for the poor old 
Rip Van Winkle of any denomination who does not 
read this glorious sign of the times! 

4. This issue of this period is the grandest of the 
centur}'^, because it involves the conversion of two- 
thirds of the population of the earth. About one 
thousand millions of human beings have not yet been 
brought to Christ, even nominally, much less spiritu- 
ally. What a stupendous work ! How slow and long 
it has been reaching this point! How impossible it 
has seemed heretofore! And yet the icebergs of the 
polar shore break up rapidly as the heat of summer 
brings to bear its cumulative energy, however long it 
may be in reaching the result. So with Missions. 
The icebergs are beginning to melt and break up rap- 
idly. The nations are softening under the light of the 
gospel. Knowledge is covering the earth as the wa- 
ters cover the sea. God seems noAV, as never before, 
to be in a great hurry about something. Thousands of 
young men and women are rising up and are ready to 
"go," and thousands are opening their pocket-books to 
the great work. Woe to the Rip Yan Winkle who still 
shuts his eyes and cries: "Away with the heathen!" 
He had better have a millstone tied about his neck 
and be cast into the sea. It is a dangerous thing to 
be a Rip Yan Winkle in the nineteenth century. 

5. Missions is the grandest issue of this or any other 
age, because it has opened up and developed the gos- 



100 RIP VAN WINKLE. 



pel dignity of women and children. Christianity is 
the liberation of these from the shackles of man's tyr- 
anny in every age and land, and Christianity has set 
them free in heathen countries and put them to work 
in Christian lands. It has taken the world eighteen 
centuries to see that a woman was worth something 
and to see that a child could be converted and put to 
learn and to labor for Jesus. We have had but little 
more conception of woman's religious worth, of chil- 
dren's importance, than the heathen, and it is only be- 
ginning to dawn fully upon us the meaning of Christ 
when he said: " Suffer the little children to come unto 
me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom 
of God." The women and the children are almost uni- 
versally missionary, and a large part of our contribu- 
tions and labors come from this source. They still 
have higher lights and deeper depths of enlightenment 
and development as the world's great missionary cause 
shall march on to the coming of Christ and the end of 
the age. Quite a number of old Rip Van Winkles try 
to keep down the women and children, but the world 
moves on and so do the women and children, never- 
theless, 

God help the Rip Van Winkles! Brethren, let us 
pray for more laborers in the harvest, but let us also 
pray that God will remove the old Rips, or the young 
Rips, or else convert them. They are "moss-backs " 
— long-haired, ragged, and antiquated — and they be- 
long to another age. They are Silurian fossils. They 
have no business living over here in the nineteenth 
century. They would be fit only for the museum in 
the twentieth century, a relic of barbaric Christianity, 
if I might so stigmatize our great and holy religion. 
These old Rips are greatly in the way in some sec- 



RIP VAN" WINKLE. 101 

tions and in many of our Churches. They paralyze 
or lethargize our young, and they hang like a mill- 
stone around the neck of the Church. The time has 
come for them to get out and get away. The sun is 
in its zenith; owls and bats, to your holes. The time 
has come when all Christians should learn, like Paul, 
that they are debtors, for Christ's sake, to all men — 
to the Jew and the Greek, to the bond and the free, 
to the black and the white. All men are of "one 
blood," and in Christ we reach the idea of the univer- 
sal brotherhood of man. O for that missionary zeal 
of Paul, who could wish himself accursed from Christ* 
if it would be the means of saving his kinsmen in the 
flesh, and which sent him, amid innumerable "perils," 
the world over, to bring the Gentiles to Christ! Of 
all the men who ever lived Paul was the imiDcrsonation 
and model of missionary religion, and no element in the 
wonderful compound of his sublime character contrib- 
uted more to his immortal fame and his deathless work. 
Go where you will, search where you may, you will 
find that the greatest benefactor of the human race 
has been the missionary, and the man who has con- 
tributed most to retard the progress of mankind has 
been the Eip Yan TV^inkle who wanted to keep all 
God's blessings at home. 




Whipp^g the Devil arourd the Stump. 



rmHE subject of this sketch, as may readily be 

^^^ seen from the illustration, is dodging, or 
what is more vulgarly and proverbial- 

'jiT^ ly called "whipping the devil around the 
stump." The picture shows an old gentleman, 
talking to his son, perhaps expostulating with 
him about some wrong, while the boy plausibly dodges 
the " old man " and evades detection and difficulty. 
The devil is screened behind a stump, and while the 
boy is ostensibly laying on the lash the devil is laugh- 
ing fit to kill himself at the artful performance; and 
at which performance the boy himself, with one eye 
on his father and the other on the devil, laughs in his 
own sleeve. Of course his Satanic majesty doesn't 
mind being whipped in this kind of way. It is a 
flagellation Avhich does not hurt anj^body but the 
dodger. " Tell the truth and shame the devil" is the 
only square blow which hurts the "father of lies;" 
but when the truth is told, and yet not told, acted, 
and yet not acted, in the way of a dodge, you only hit 
the devil in fun, without hurting- him, and he enjoys 
it. In other words, you fool somebody else and hurt 
yourself, and this is quite a pleasant work for the 
devil to instigate and yet appear to suff'er the penalty. 
The devil and the dodger understand each other, 

(102) 




i|j'?^Vi|i.h;|::ii-.i 



WHIPPI]Sr& THE DEVIL AROUXD THE STUMP. 105 

"stand in together," so to speak; and it reminds me 
of an incident in slavery times. One night a farmer 
told his son to tie a negro boy, named Alf, to a post 
and give him a sound thrashing for some misdemeanor. 
The son and Alf were great friends, and when they 
went out into the dark the son said : " !I^ow, Alf, you 
halloo as I beat the post, and the old man will think 
I am giving you the devil, as he told me to do." The 
son beat the post, Alf bellowed, and the old gentle- 
man heard the performance with perfect satisfaction. 
This was whipping the devil, instead of Alf, around 
the stump, as seen in my picture; and the devil can 
afford to be drubbed in this sort of style about as well 
as Alf could. He bellows for the whipper, about as 
Alf did, before the world, and he laughs at the per- 
formance, about as Alf did, to himself. Satan works 
no class of his subjects with grander success than he 
does his favorite dodger. 

This species of lying, whether spoken or acted, may 
be called circular; in other words, a dodge is a cir- 
cular lie. It is a lie by circumlocution or circumven- 
tion, appearing honest, telling the truth, in fact, to tell 
a falsehood in reality. It is a species of deception 
which describes a circumference about the point to 
be evaded and which does not go straight to it, get- 
ting out of the difficulty by diverting the attention in 
another direction. It throws its victim off guard, and 
the victimizer -is often the studied villain in that 
school of lying indirectly when lying directly will not 
get him out of the difficulty to be evaded. It is more 
artful than square lying, and the expert can describe 
a circle as easily as a square without the slightest me- 
chanical aid of the semi-diameter. The art seems to 
be readily learned too, for even children not unfre- 



106 WHippusra the devil around the stump. 

quently are adepts in this vice. Little Charlie came 
home one Sunday afternoon with a paper bag of can- 
dy. " "Where did you get that candy, Charlie ? " asked 
the mother. " Cot it at the drug-store; didn't buy it, 
though." " How did you get it, then— ^you didn't beg 
it?" "!N"o, ma'am; I told the doctor that I would 
get some more candy next week, and as this was worth 
ten cents I would pay him twenty cents for the next 
ten cents' worth ; so you see, mother, I didn't trade on 
Sunday; " and thus the little fellow whipped the devil 
around the stump on the Sabbath question as artfully 
as an old expert. This was equal to an old minister 
I once heard of who loved whisky, and who was al- 
ways ailing " in the head, hip, and side," and afflicted 
with the " influenza." He would not go to the saloon 
nor send to the wholesale liquor-dealer to get his 
brandy, but he would go to the drug-store and get a 
prescription l)y the quart, half-gallon, or gallon, as 
the case might be, with a small amount of Peruvian 
bark put into it in order to give the color of medicine. 
He persuaded himself that he needed it. He claimed, 
and believed, perhaps, that it did him great good; but 
he was whipping the devil around the stump in order 
to drink liquor, as thousands upon thousands have 
done who did not want to come straight out to do the 
oj)en thing. Multitudes of prohibitionists, great tem- 
perance men, are eloquent about the " great cause," 
but they keep " the little brown jug " with " shot " in 
it behind the door — for health! 

Not only do children learn this art quite young, 
but often it is found well developed in the ignorant 
and illiterate. The negro, for instance, is a fine 
dodger, and so of the most unlettered Irishman — the 
only two human beings upon earth who possess a na- 



WHIPPIJ^G- THE DEVIL AROUND THE STUMP. 107 

tive, characteristic, and specific wit above other na- 
tionalities, and wliose wit is oftenest brought into play 
in the art of whipping the devil around the stump. 
" Sam, where did you get that melon? " " Boss, you 
nebber kotch Sam wid a watermillion ceptin' from his 
own patch, did you? " "]^o." " Well, den, you neb- 
ber will." " But, Sam, you have just come out of my 
patch; at least, you are coming from that direction." 
" Boss, direckshuns hab got nuthin' to do wid an hon- 
est nigger," Of course there was no way to catch 
Sam except to track him to the patch. Pat, the Irish- 
man, who swore off from drinking, who for a long 
time kept sober, and who at last broke his pledge, 
gives a fine specimen of whipping the devil around 
the stump when he distinguished between himself and 
Pat who took the drink. It was not himself at all 
that did it, but it was Pat, and upon Pat he shoved all 
the blame when it was himself that was Pat, and Pat 
was he; and so he explained to the priest. 

This vicious and artful sin is almost universal in 
high life and by more responsible people, as well as 
among the young, the ignorant, and illiterate. The 
intoxicated husband coming home late, trying to talk 
wisely and walk straight, is whipping the devil around 
the stump to his wife and children when he is drunk 
clear through and visibly full to the sight of the dull- 
est observer. How often the derelict husband in va- 
rious ways whips the devil around the stump to the 
deception of his " darling wife " the Lord only knows. 
The schemes and devices of the business world, be- 
hind the counter and on the mart, often take the shape 
of this artful sin. The horse-jockey deals in a thou- 
sand circular lies in order to sell or swap his old doc- 
tored beast, and when you have been swindled you 



108 WHIPPIlS^a THE DEVIL AEOU]SrD THE STUMP. 

cannot point to a single square lie in the trade. Be- 
fore the jnclge and the jury, in spite of the lawyer's 
acumen, the dodger on the stand whips the father of 
lies around the stump. " Did you not help steal these 
things?" was once asked of an expert criminal who 
w^as the suspected "pal" of a crook on trial. "I've 
always tried to live an honest man," he said, with an 
air of injured innocence, " and I never took any thing 
in my life but an umbrella." He actually disarmed 
suspicion, though afterward convicted of the crime of 
which he was trying to clear his " pal." I once heard, in 
a cotton case, a prominent witness on the stand in be- 
half of his partner, both of whom were indicted for 
embezzling cotton stored in their warehouse. He was 
asked the question if he was not engaged in this crime 
charged upon his partner. The question was objected 
to, of course, but he chose to answer it. " Ha! ha! ha! 
I look like a man who w^ould steal cotton? My cir- 
cumstances don't indicate such a thing much. He! 
he! he! I'd like to see the fellow who thinks such a 
thing- of me!" He spoke in such a manner as to 
dodge even suspicion, but he was afterward found 
guilty when put on trial. So in a thousand high 
places and among the biggest folks the art of whip- 
ping Satan around the stump is practiced, even to 
perjury. Perhaps the most artful dodger is the poli- 
tician. 

Cain was the first dodger in history, unless Adam 
and Eve should be considered as whipping the devil 
around the stumj) when, clothed with fig-leaves, they 
were dodging God in the g-arden of Eden. To cir- 
cumvent God's inquiry, "Where is thy brother?" 
Cain replied: "Am I my brother's keeper? " and since 
that time the w^orld has kept up the art of dodging 



WHIPPIISTG THE DEVIL AROUj^D THE STUMP. 109 

pretty vigorously. Ananias and Sapphira were killed 
for it — deceiving their brethren by the apparent truth 
of their liberality, and yet lying to the Holy Spirit. 
Judas whipped the devil around the stump when he 
betrayed his Master with a kiss, especially in the de- 
ception of the other disciples; and he hanged himself 
for it the same day. Peter denied his Lord straight 
out, although he began to dodge when, with assumed 
surprise, he said to the maiden : " I know not what 
thou sayest." Upon the whole, however, Peter lied 
squarely on this occasion ; but Paul caught him dodg- 
ing at Antioch, and blamed him to his face. Paul was 
not a dodger, and yet it did seem a little like whip- 
ping Satan around the stump when he went up to Je- 
rusalem, shaved his head, and went to charges with 
the JeAVS, evidently for the purpose of avoiding dis- 
favor and of winning influence. It was at least ''that 
rascally virtue called policy," if it was not dodging 
the issue. The best of people, under extraordinary 
circumstances, have dodged sometimes and somewhere. 
One there was, however, who never dodged. It was 
Jesus. He whipped the devil, but not around the 
stump. He always struck him squarely between the 
eyes, and he vanquished him forever. "Resist the 
devil," says James, " and he will flee from you; " but 
the old liar and deceiver enjoys nothing better than 
the oily, eely lashing he gets around the stump. Jo- 
seph fled from him and left his coat behind him, and 
he had just as w^ell have stood his ground and fought 
him face to face. Abraham whipped him around the 
stump with Pharaoh, calling his wife his sister, which, 
in a sense, she was; and he got both himself and 
his wife into trouble. The best plan is to follow 
Christ's example, even as a rule of policy, tell the 



110 WHIPPING THE DEVIL AROUISTD THE STUMP. 

truth, shame the devil, and strike him straight out 
from the shoulder. Meet him squarely, and you will 
come out best in the end. As Shakespeare says, " 'No 
legacy is so rich as honesty; " and it is a legacy im- 
perishable for time as it is for eternity. The dodger 
is ever the loser in the end, and when his character is 
once known he is among all men despised and dis- 
trusted. Otway said, " Honesty needs no disguise 
nor ornament; be ])lain; " and it is the greatest conso- 
lation and the surest benefit to the man of probity and 
integrity that he walk above suspicion by eschewing 
every art of deception. " The way of honest fame," 
said Socrates, "is this: study to be what you wish to 
seem;" and it may be well said that, in the end, the 
dodger will never reach honor, fame, or dignity. Tup- 
per has truly said : 

All is vanity wliicli is not lionesty; thus is it graven on the 

tomb ; 
I speak of an honest purpose, character, speech, and action. 
Honesty, even by itself, though making many adversaries 
Whom prudence might have set aside, or charity have softened, 
Evermore will prosper at the last, and gain a man great honor. 



Oh THE FEIiGB. 



^f|OW long halt ye between two opinions?" 
Here is a poor fellow on the fence, sitting 




>?< < 



puzzled and undecided between hell and 
heaven, between the angel of mercy and the 
devil. Like Reuben, he is double minded, un- 
stable as water, and cannot excel. Tossed 
about by every wind of doctrine and temptation, want- 
ing to do right and afraid of going to hell, yet unable 
to give up the world, subdue the flesh, and resist the 
devil. How many just such are all around us! They 
swear off from the bar-room to-day and go back to- 
morrow, resolve on Sunday and break their vows on 
Monday, promise ten thousand things in life and never 
accomplish any thing of ultimate and permanent 
good. They are on the fence in every thing, espe- 
cially religion. 'No matter what great moral question 
springs up, they are always undecided if interest, 
appetite, or pleasure stand in the way. They are " be- 
tween hawk and buzzard" on prohibition, especially 
if business or politics are in the way, or if they are 
unsettled as to whether or not they want to give up a 
thirst for the bottle. They recognize and feel the 
great moral and economic principles involved in the 
contest. They discover that the saloon is the pro- 
foundest curse of the country, the producer of crime, 

(113) 



114 OlSr THE FENCE. 



insanity, and pauperism, the debaucher of politics and 
the corrupter of legislation, the destroyer of youth 
and the defacer of beauty, the promoter of strife and 
murder and lust, the degradation of morals, and the 
subverter of society, the deadly bane of the family, 
the multitudinous breeder of individual ruin, the open 
door to hell from every avenue of social existence, 
but they cannot be persuaded to act with the ref- 
ormation of the age in which they live. They will 
not take sides, but straddle the fence and thus give 
encouragement to the enemy, fallaciously imagining 
neutrality, when obligation fixes their duty on the side 
of right. So of every other question involving a con- 
flict between duty and interest, pain and pleasure, in- 
dulgence and self-denial, popularity and criticism, 
right and wrong. 

I have seen the preacher on the fence in things which 
compromised his bread and butter or his popular stand- 
ing in the community. On certain subjects he set his 
sails with the wind, and his theology became like In- 
dia rubber. Big sinners sat in the pew before him — 
the wholesale liquor-dealer, the hig'h-toned libertine, 
the giddy fashionist, the splendid reveler, the dishon- 
est dealer — but these magnificent sinners were rich 
and influential in position. The faithful and honest 
men and women of the Church mourned over spiritu- 
al dearth and decay; they called for discipline, that 
now dead sage, but the world in the Church and out 
of it rallied to "its own." The poor preacher talked 
of charity and love and sweetness, and he dealt gen- 
tly with sin, spiritual wickedness in high places, 
while his conscience urged him to hurl thunderbolts 
and hold up the high standard of Grod's law and or- 
der. There he sat on the fence, while his Church 



ON THE FENCE. 115 



died, or until God let the devil in to tear it up and 
put it in a position to revolutionize, reorganize, and 
re-establish itself. So in a host of questions to-day, the 
popular preacher, occupying a popular pulpit, preach- 
ing to a popular congregation, is sitting on the fence, 
while the devil laughs on one side, and the angel of 
God shrieks out on the other : " Cry aloud, and spare 
not!" He claims "broad views on all subjects;" 
and the popular press lauds him as a man of liberal 
mind and without bigotry. He deals much in the 
aesthetics of Christianity, dabbles largely in the eth- 
ical, and occasionally touches the gospel of salvation 
or damnation with a " forty -foot " pole. Hell, except 
in parlor parlance, is quite out of the fashion with 
him, and the love and mercy of God, without the 
wrath and justice of God, are invariably held up. 
Sinners profess without repentance^ and join the Church 
without religion; but all runs well just so the Church 
flourishes in grand style and the pastor lives on good 
terms, without friction, with his congregation and 
with the community. He is on the fence in every 
thing which would involve dispute or controversy 
with any thing mortal, and he seeks to reconcile and 
compromise away every difference as non-essential 
distinctions, without difference, among men. We live 
in the age of on-the-fence religion and on-the-fence 
ecclesiasticism and on-the-fence morality, "neither 
cold nor hot," ready to be spewed out of the mouth of 
Almighty God, increased in riches, full and wanting 
nothing, yet ragged and miserable and wretched in 
our delusion. This was the Laodicean sin which, fig- 
uratively, makes God sick. 

I have seen mothers and fathers on the fence with 
their children. Especially is this so in these " last 



116 ON- THE FEN^CE. 



days " when children have become universally " dis- 
obedient," and when the child, instead of the parent, 
rules. The day of the rod is gone, it is said, and we 
have reached the point where intelligence and love 
prevail. We now persuade and plead and beg, and I 
have seen a child offended, pout, and sniffle until the 
mother would go and ask its pardon, or otherwise ex- 
plain and apologize for hurting the little one's feelings. 
The whole parental fraternity of this country is now 
on the fence with reference to child training and cult- 
ure, with few exceptions; and without a revolution 
the next generation will find the majority on the side 
of the devil. Little girls wear bangs and bonnets and 
dresses like women, have acknowledged beaus, and I 
have seen them meet on the streets of ]^ashville 
and kiss! Young ladies and gentlemen correspond 
through the telephone, keep late hours in the parlor, 
stand at the gate in the dark, go upon moonliglit 
excursions, and indiscriminately meet and associate 
at watering-places among strangers of all classes 
and characters. The parent is on the fence, not know- 
ing what to do. There is nothing positive, but all 
seems generally negative, in family training. The 
child goes to school if it wants to, and but few ever 
grow up now, especially in our cities, to graduate 
at a first-class institution, male or female, except from 
the poorer classes. The boys and girls from the coun- 
try constitute the main element seeking higher ed- 
ucation; and in the matter of intellectual as well as 
moral culture our city children are left ultimately to 
do as they please, against the protest of the teacher, 
parent, and preacher. iN'ever was there, in my humble 
opinion, an age of greater parental indifierence, and 
never was there a period in which the independence 



oisr THE fe:n^ce. 117 



of children was so absolutely declared. Still the world 
rolls on, and by other counteracting influences keeps, 
so far, her level and upward and. onward way. 

But of all the most pitiable and sorry pictures it is 
the poor sinner on the fence and unable to decide be- 
tween God and the devil. He admits himself a sin- 
ner, he feels that hell is yawning- beneath him and that 
heaven is wooing him above; he hears the voice of 
mercy calling him on one side, and sees the devil beck- 
oning him on the other, but he cannot decide. I have 
talked with scores just in this condition; and some- 
times, with tears and trembling, they have admitted 
just such a state of mind. They want to get to heav- 
en, and they want to escape hell. They acknowledge 
Christ as the only Redeemer; they confess that they 
are wavering in the balance between two opposite 
destinies; but some pet object, some fanciful scheme, 
some darling temptation, keeps them undecided. Oft- 
en they are hoping for the future, and at the same 
time dreading the terrors of procrastination, but they 
continue to halt between two opinions. So thousands, 
at last, have gotten down on the devil's side of the 
fence, or else, at last, the devil caught them on the 
fence. It is all the same whether a man sits on the 
fence or gets off voluntarily on the devil's side, the 
devil gets him in the end. Let no man persuade him- 
self that he is neither for God nor the devil, because 
he sits on the fence; for the fence of indecision is not 
the dividing line between God and the devil. The 
sinner already belongs to the devil, and until he de- 
cides for Christ he is on the devil's side. 

Jesus says: "He that is not with me is against me; 
and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." 
There is no middle, negative, nor neutral ground be- 



118 Ol^ THE FElSrCE. 



tween good and evil, between God and Satan. There 
is no half-way house between hell and heaven. I must 
be altogether on God's side, or altogether against him. 
"WTierever relation exists there obligation binds, and 
I cannot stand neutral between God and his enemies. 
I owe God all; and I am bound by his authority as 
Creator and King, as Preserver and Kedeemer. On 
the other hand, I owe Satan nothing save opposition 
and resistance; and any neutrality, any getting on the 
fence between God and him, is treason and rebellion 
to God. Frederick the Great said that he was " nei- 
ther for God nor the devil;" in other words, he did 
not know where he stood ; but he was mistaken : he 
Was on the side of the devil if he was not with Christ. 
The citizen cannot be neutral in war toward his gov- 
ernment. The wife cannot stand on negative ground 
toward her husband in conflict with an enemy. Re- 
lation creates obligation, and there is no fence between 
the two. Hence, as a sinner, I must be in harmony 
with my environment, my conscience, my God, and 
my record in order to be with Christ, and no being 
was ever so deluded as he who imagines that he can 
be neither for nor against his God. He is for him or 
against him — totally, wholly, absolutely, altogether. 
Agrippa was "almost persuaded" to be a Christian; 
but Paul said that he must be " altogether," not " al- 
most." God will not divide with us, for there is no 
room for division between salvation and damnation. 

Joshua was the true type of the decided man of 
God. "As for me and my house," he said, "we will 
serve the Lord;" and he said to Israel: "Choose you 
this day whom ye will serve." So said Elijah: "If 
the Lord be God, follow him : but if Baal, then follow 
him." Get on one side of the fence or the other, for 



ON THE FEN^CE. 119 



of all places in the world the fence is the most miser- 
able position. A man had just as well get down 
squarely on the devil's side and enjoy himself in sin 
as best he can as to sit in misery all his life on the 
fence and let the devil, at last, come and take him off. 
The misery of indecision in this life will be added to 
the misery of hell hereafter. If you are not going to 
decide for God, and be happy both here and hereafter, 
why not decide at once for the devil, who, when you 
do decide for him, will do his best to give you a good 
time while you live? The only happy people are 
those who are decided, good or bad. Even a con- 
science dead to God will have some pleasure in the 
ease of indifference, and if a man can be decided and 
satisfied in evil he can enjoy "the pleasures of sin for 
a season." It does not last long; but it is all the man, 
decided and satisfied in evil, will ever get. If I had 
made up my mind to serve the devil, I would take my 
fill of sin, for beyond the grave there is no happiness 
in such a decision. Still it is no worse, and perhaps 
not so bad, as to sit in misery on the fence all the 
days of my life, and then go down to hell to reproach 
myself for having lived a fool, and a sinner too. How 
infinitely better to decide for God! 

How happy are they 

Who their Saviour obey! 
Decision for God rejoices here below, even when 
overwhelmed with sorrows. Despair never follows 
disaster and grief. Hope climbs over every mountain- 
peak of diflaculty, the sun gilds every dark cloud 
which shrouds the struggling soul for heaven; and in 
eternity the crown of decision will be the diadem of 
glory which the Man of sorrows shall place upon the 
once aching head of his decided follower. 




TWO MASTERS. 



man can serve two masters : for either he 
will hate the one, and love the other; or 
else he will hold to the one, and despise 
the other. Ye cannot serve God and mam- 
mon." In the picture before us we see a young 
man holding on to Christ with one hand while 
the world-god, mammon, holds him by the wrist of 
the other hand. Christ is pointing him to heaven, 
while the grave and Satan are concealed behind the 
tempting world-god; and, strange to say, this young 
man, with one eye on Jesus and the other upon the 
object of his idolatry, is holding on between Christ 
and Satan, between hell and heaven, between ultimate 
hope and despair. This is a picture of double-hearted 
decision which, like double-minded indecision, nev^er 
excels at any thing. Man has tAvo eyes, two ears, two 
hands, two nostrils — in fine, the double organ of all 
the senses with one exception — ^but he cannot be def-- 
initely conscious of seeing, hearing, smelling, touch- 
ing, tasting but one object at the same time. He can 
be or do but one thing distinctively at a time, and 
no more ; nay, much less can he serve God and mam- 
mon, have two masters, opposed to each other, at once. 
He must, in order to be successful and happy, cling 
to the one or the other, let loose one or the other, love 
(120) 



TWO MASTERS. 123 



or hate one or the other. A man may follow several 
details or departments of the same business in life; 
his business and religion may be in the same line, but 
he cannot serve Grod and hold on to a business, a 
pleasure, a passion, ah appetite, or an idea which 
serves the world, the flesh, and the devil. The God 
we serve and the vocation we follow, the thoughts and 
emotions we cherish, the friends and companions we 
keep, must travel the same road. Otherwise, our re- 
ligious life, at least, will prove a failure both for time 
and eternity. 

There are just four kinds of people in the world, as 
illustrated by the parable of the sower. There is the 
" wayside hearer," who heeds not the word, and Avho 
never makes any profession of religion. The " stony- 
ground " believer is the volatile and variable enthusi- 
ast who runs well for awhile, but soon falls away be- 
cause, like the soil on a flat rock, his heart gives no 
permanent root to the word sown. JS'ext comes the 
" thorny-ground " professor, who is choked up with 
pleasure or with cares and anxieties or with the de- 
ceitfulness of riches; in other words, with the world. 
The " good-ground " hearer or believer has all the con- 
ditions of heart essential to true and vital religion: 
the soil broken up, the stones and thorns removed, 
and the seed sown so deep as to penetrate the depths 
essential to development, growth, and fruitfulness. 
The "wayside" never comes to Christ; the "stony 
ground" comes and falls back; the " thorny ground " 
comes and holds on to both Christ and the world; the 
"good ground " sticks to God, and brings forth fruit 
according to capacity. The " stony-ground " fellow 
fills more the picture of double - mindedness in my 
sketch of the undecided man " on the fence." The 



124 TWO MASTERS. 



"thorny-ground" professor is the double-hearted fel- 
low holding between two masters — Christ and mam- 
mon — in this lecture. Our Churches are full of both 
stony and thorny ground religion; but we more read- 
ily get rid of the "stony" than the "thorny." The 
" stony-ground" fellow soon gets offended and falls 
out of the way and the fold; and though he may come 
and go, be in and out, he will finally leave, if not 
truly converted. On the other hand, the thorny- 
ground professor will hold on, hoping to escape hell 
and get to heaven, like Atlas with the world on his 
back. He believes in the old couplet: 
Eeligion never was designed 
To make our pleasures less, 
and he puts the sentiment to the perverted use of grat- 
ifying his false and fatal conception of Christianity 
as a worldly, sensual, or selfish religion. He will be 
the speechless intruder at the great supper of the 
Lamb without the wedding garment on. 

There can be no excellence in a state of indecision, 
as we have seen in our last lecture, which is a com- 
panion to this; and no more can there be excellence 
in trying to decide in favor of two opposite and an- 
tagonistic ideas, things, or beings. Double-minded- 
ness and indecision always go together, and conspire 
to produce failure and misery; and double-hearted- 
ness, with its sinister vieAVS and motives, whether al- 
ternating or holding on between good and evil, ulti- 
mately, if not immediately, reaches the same result. 
It is strange that any one should ever be so blind or 
stupid as to try to serve Grod and mammon; but there 
is a counterpart to this position in those who believe 
that they can so live as to serve neither. As partial- 
ly shown in the lecture before us, so let me emphasize 



TWO MASTERS. 125 



the illusive mistake, and let me say that no matter 
how we imagine our position, whether trying to be 
on the side of both God and Satan or on the side of 
neither, we are certainly altogether on the side of the 
devil. Obligation created by relationship fixes every 
human being's allegiance to God, fixes his undying 
warfare against evil; and neutrality, negativity, or in- 
difference amounts to positive and absolute opposition 
to that Being to whom we owe every thing. Omis- 
sion and commission of sin are two sides of an equa- 
tion, and the only mark which designates the space 
between them is the algebraic sign of equality. Be- 
ing equal to the same thing, they are equal to each 
other; and the man who stands aloof and imagines by 
his excellence that he is a law unto himself, that he 
serves neither God nor Satan, is like the traitor who 
will fight neither for nor against his country. The 
man, however, who shoots at me to kill is no worse 
than my friend, so called, who stands by and sees him 
do it without interposition in my behalf. We can- 
not be for both sides of a question which involves a 
difference, nor can we be indifferent to the difference 
if relationship involves our obligation to one side or 
the other. God will damn us in our double-minded 
indecision, trying to decide and never doing it. He 
will damn us in our double-hearted effort to put our 
arms around both, and he will damn us in the self-im- 
portant solecism of imagined neutrality between good 
and evil, between himself and Satan. 

The man on the fence and the man trying to serve 
two masters occupy before God about the same posi- 
tion, and so of the counterpart of both — the man try- 
ing to serve neither. These sins are akin to each 
other, triple sisters in the greatest folly which ever 



126 TWO MASTERS. 



characterized a man having convictions or trying to 
have them in delusion. One halts between two opin- 
ions without taking sides ; one runs with the hare and 
holds with the hounds; the other sits down in his self- 
conscious dignity and plays the agnostic, who knows 
nothing and has nothing to do with any thing or any- 
body but himself. This latter position is based upon 
the Ingersollian theory. 

Coming specially to the subject now treated, the 
man trying to serve two masters, there are multitudes 
upon all questions — moral, social, political, and re- 
ligious — who are apparently on both sides of every 
issue where self-denial or self-interest is involved. 
What a hard and heartless position to hold and task 
to perform! How unsuccessful and wretched the life 
with a double ideal of duty and relationship! How 
little of self-respect can such people have! How cer- 
tain it must be that neither God nor Satan nor the 
world can have any respect for them ! Double-mind- 
ed indecision is more the object of pity, but the 
double-hearted purpose, to say nothing of indifferent 
agnosticism, is the object of contempt. A clown can 
ride two horses going the same way, but no expert in 
duplicity can ride two horses going in different direc- 
tions. Heaven, earth, and hell have a profound ad- 
miration for the man who takes the right side of every 
thing, and who eschews especially the folly of taking 
both. He may not be loved by the devil nor the world, 
but he will be respected and trusted by both the good 
and the bad; and it is the decided man on the right 
side who will occupy the highest place in heaven. 
Indecision, duality, or indifference, in principle or 
practice, never won a victory, accomplished an end, 
nor wore a crown ; and it is especially true that a man 



TWO MASTERS. 127 



trying to walk both forks of a road will split himself 
in two if he succeeds in the operation. 

Balaam is a specimen illustrative of this kind of a 
man. He was a double-hearted fool trying to serve 
God and Baal at the same time. He wanted both to 
curse and to bless Israel at once, trying to keep God's 
favor from fear, and trying to get Balak's gold from 
the love of filthy lucre. He looked upon the goodly 
tents of Jacob with pious admiration and aspiration. 
He longed to die the death of the righteous and to 
have his last end like his ; but in trying to serve both 
Jehovah and Baal he lost both God's favor and Ba- 
lak's gold. He was ostensibly on both sides, but, like 
the double-minded and double-hearted and the indif- 
ferent in all cases, his heart was not on the Lord's side 
at all. He was at heart the enemy of God and Israel, 
however blinded in his imagination to believe to the 
contrary. !N"o man can serve two masters. Ye can- 
not serve God and mammon. VYe shall love or hate, 
hold to or let loose one or the other in the end, and 
generally God will be hated and loosed, as in Balaam's 
case. In the very nature of things we cannot relish 
incongruity, cultivate opposites, nor follow antago- 
nisms long at a time; and it is certain that success 
and happiness would be impossible if we did. We 
cannot enjoy bitter and sweet at the same time, al- 
though every sweet, even to the decided Christian, 
has a touch of bitter, and every bitter a touch of 
sweet. We cannot deliberately mix them. The great- 
est and best, the holiest and happiest of all men have 
been single - minded and single - hearted. The one- 
idead man is the successful and peaceful man, and the 
one-hearted man is the good and happy man. To do 
one thing, to be one thing at a time, and to be and do 



128 TWO MASTERS, 



it well, is the only rule of happy success; and this is 
the secret of a perfect and lofty Christianity. 

Let me say, in conclusion, that the devil never 
meets his match save in the one-idead, single-minded, 
whole-hearted Christian. He could do nothing with 
Job except to make him cry and groan and complain 
a little. Job recognized that God gave and that God 
took away, that he had a property right in all his pos- 
sessions, and that he had the sovereign control of his 
life and destiny. He was a man of inflexible convic- 
tions and of unfaltering and fixed purposes, and he 
could exclaim, when all was gone: "The Lord gave, 
and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name 
of the Lord." " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in 
him." Misfortunes nor carbuncles could make such 
a man " curse God." He made God's kingdom and 
righteousness " first," number one. Himself, his busi- 
ness, and his family belonged all to God as a part of 
his religion; and the devil, by all the powers of loss 
and affliction, could not make him " divide." Integ- 
rity of principle and character is what a man wants 
to whip Satan with. The devil always meets his 
match in a whole man when he comes in conflict with 
an unmixed and indivisible and invulnerable integrity 
of character. He found no weak place in the fortress 
of Job's charactei", no hole to lodge in; and the old 
deceiver got about the worst thrashing, under all the 
circumstances, he ever received before Christ struck 
him between the eyes on the mount of temptation. 
Wherever the devil finds a life full of Christ nowa- 
days he always skulks away crest-fallen and defeated, 
for he remembers that he cannot whip Christ whether 
on the mountain's top or in the faithful heart. He 
came unto Christ, but he found "nothing," no ele- 



TWO MASTERS. 129 



ment to work upon, and he found his everlasting and 
overwhelming match. So he found Paul a match for 
him in spite of all the cruelty and persecution he 
heaped upon him. Here was another whole man, un- 
divided and unmixed, for Christ; and, under God, all 
the devils in hell and all the emissaries of the devil 
on earth did not shake his life-long integrity. He had 
but one ideal of glory, the cross; and he had but one 
conception of life, Christ. 

Alas! how many unhappy and unsuccessful Chris- 
tians in the world! How many unfortunate and mis- 
erable ones ! "What is the matter? They are all mixed 
up with the world, swallowed up in self and selfish- 
ness, walking cheek by jowl with the devil, trying to 
serve two masters — God and mammon — and making 
a wretched faihu'e in both, especially in religion. It 
is hard to teach a Sunday-school class and run to the 
play-house and the dance-hall all the week. You 
can't enjoy a prayer-meeting Wednesday evening and 
go to the bar-room Tuesday night before. The horse- 
race and the sermon will not mix Sunday morning. 
The family altar and the card-table do not run togeth- 
er. Profanity and hymns will not jingle. There is 
no harmony between a vile heart and prayer and praise 
and melody, when you go to worship God. You can't 
have the devil sitting in the pew with you, and yet 
be trying to shake hands with Christ; and you can't 
leave Satan at the church-door, if you run with him 
during the week in pleasure and business. Chris- 
tians, if you would be successful and happy, don't di- 
vide with God. 



THE PERFEGT MODEL. 




have before us here the perfect Model. The 
crude block of human nature sits before 
the Master, and with the chisel of divine 
truth and the mallet of his power, the Holy 
Spirit shapes him into the image of the di- 
vine Pattern with many a blow and sharp in- 
cision. This is the portrait, rather the sculpture, of 
every Christian developing to the stature of the full- 
ness of Christ by growth in grace and knowledge; 
and whether the perfection is attained here below or 
not, such will be the likeness and glory of God's child 
when he awakes in eternity. We shall then be like 
Jesus, and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit 
will be complete. How beautiful and glorious ! Eye 
hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart conceived 
the exalted consummation. The splendid symbolism 
of the " bride adorned for her husband," the "new Je- 
rusalem," the glorified Church, " coming down from 
God out of heaven," seen by John in Revelation, 
gives us some conception of the grandeur of our 
perfection in Christ in the heavenly state. We are 
" complete in him," perfect in justification and right- 
eousness imputed, perfect in divine and eternal life 
imparted, and to be perfect in that sanctifying growth 
which shall fill out our moral and spiritual stature in 
(130) 




..■;,«4! ■-■•._ >\ 



*■-'; 



-<^- 



^""V, 4 



^m. 




THE PERFECT MODEL. 133 

the immaculate form and fashion of our Redeemer. 
Glorious Model! How we should sit before it, or hold 
it in front of us every day, that we may be conformed 
to his will and transformed more and more unto the 
perfect day after his likeness and image by a living 
sacrifice unto him of body, mind, and soul! 

Jesus Christ said to the world: ^'■Follow ?ne." He 
spake as man never spake. He made no mistakes in 
judgment, committed no fault in morals. His exem- 
plification of divine life in toil and teaching, in trial 
and sufiering, in self-denial and self-sacrifice, finds 
no parallel in the history of the world's best men, and 
he uttered a doctrine and gave a system of religion 
which are absolutely faultless. Perfect God, he was 
at the same time perfect man ; and he so became allied 
to human nature and all its wants and infirmities that 
he lived and died with a perfect human experience and 
a perfect human character. In his sympathetic hu- 
man relationship, in the contact of his God-touched 
humanity, he became not only our model of perfection, 
but he became the divine magnet which drew the 
world to his feet. He is not a cold and far-off model, 
to be philosophically or aesthetically gazed upon and 
wondered at; but he came down to us in concrete form, 
the " God with us" so entering into us that we might 
enter into him; and, nestling at his feet, we can sit 
and look into the face of a loving Friend who knows 
and feels our wants and gives to our hungering hearts 
every needed blessing and grace. We have a living 
and loving model which knows and helps us to study 
himself; and with such advantages of discipleship, 
how rapidly we may develop into his likeness by fol- 
lowing his footsteps under the guidance of his truth 
and the inspiration of his Spirit! 



134 THE PERFECT MODEL. 

jSTo other being since time began could have said, 
" Follow me." Paul did say, " Follow me as I follow 
Christ; " but in this injunction he held up first of all 
before us Christ as the model which he himself illus- 
trated. 'No human being, in himself and in the light 
of his own excellence, could say, " Follow me " — that 
is, in the sense of a pattern for eternity. Some men 
and women have lived and died excellent moral exam- 
ples for the life we now live; but the purer and bright- 
er they have beamed upon the world the darker they 
have beheld their own imperfection and depravity. 
The perfect Job said that he was a worm's brother, 
that he abhorred himself in " dust and ashes " when he 
came to fnlly see himself in the justification of God, 
and so of the best who have lived. Their lives and 
characters, under the microscope of God, would mag- 
nify into lines of hideous shape and contortion. There 
are none good, no, not one; and the great Apostle 
Paul said of himself: " No good thing dwelleth in 
me." There has never been one single perfect human 
model to imitate, and- not one, however perfect or per- 
fectly imitated, could have transformed us into a char- 
acter fit for heaven. Jesus alone could say, " FoIIoav 
me," for he is the only one " altogether lovely and the 
chiefest among ten thousand." He could say, " Come 
unto me and learn," for in the school of Christ the 
soul could find rest and refreshment from God, wis- 
dom and peace from above. The schools of Socrates 
and Plato, the academy and the porch of the Greeks 
Avere grand molders of human thought and character; 
but the philosophies of the Stoics and Epicureans 
long ago degenerated and died amid the indistinguish- 
able ruins of atheism and pantheism, the profoundest 
corrupters of the human mind and heart. 



THE PERFECT MODEL. 135 

As Teacher and Exemplar Christ eclipses with trans- 
cendent glory all the school-masters of time. He 
tells and shows us how to live and how to die, and he 
brings with vivid reality and accuracy the panorama 
of eternity before our eyes. He was the impersona- 
tion of that meekness and humility always born of 
greatness and goodness, but in him the impersonation 
and incarnation of God and of Godlike character. 
His child-like innocence and simplicity, coupled with 
the lion-hearted courage and majesty of manhood, 
brought together two extremes of human nature, be- 
tween which pride and ambition, ignorance and prej- 
udice, have ever marred the glory and happiness of 
the human family; and it is through the model teach- 
ing and example of Christ that we behold to-day the 
sublimest illustrations of manhood on earth in imita- 
tion of our great and only Master. The greatest men 
and women of earth are Christ-like and child-like. 
In patience and fortitude, in unblanched courage and 
bravery, we behold the masterpiece of the moral sub- 
lime in man when Jesus stood before Pilate, and sweat 
great drops of blood in Gethsemane, and died on Cal- 
vary. In toil and in tears we behold him the indefat- 
igable laborer, conquering all things with the stern 
strokes of industry, going about doing good. He 
lighted up the dens of iniquity and the haunts of pov- 
erty and the habitations of misery with the touch of 
the tenderest and yet loftiest humanity, and he illus- 
trated that great truth that sympathy and love alone 
bring health and sunshine and joy to a suffering and 
degraded world. He proved, beyond the shadow of a 
doubt, the impotency of all force to conquer and con- 
trol men, and he set on foot a series of revolutions in 
the salvation and amelioration of the centuries which 



136 THE PERFECT MODEL. 

owe their glory and their good to the theory that they 
who take the sword shall perish by it. The sublimest 
triumph over the world was taught us in his doctrine 
of forbearance and forgiveness, and the best way to 
hurt an enemy was to heap coals of fire upon his head 
by returning good for evil. In all things Jesus dem- 
onstrates the value and happiness of passion in its con- 
trol and subordination to good, and that the grandeur 
and power of intellect lies in the fear of God, which 
is the beginning of wisdom, and in the love of God, 
which is the end of wisdom. He is " the way, the 
truth, the life," and no other finger has ever pointed 
us across the hills of time to the hills of eternity. 
The way of the cross is the only way, the truth of the 
cross is the only truth, the life of the cross is the only 
life, and nothing but Perfection incarnate could have 
ever transformed the cross — the symbol of human in- 
iquity, human shame, and human punishment — into 
an ensign of divine grace, divine honor, and divine 
justification. The banner of the cross waves to-day 
upon the Avails of every city, unfurls to the breeze in 
every clime, and dominates every empire. 

However Hampered by the infirmities of the flesh 
or tempted by the devil, or mocked, opposed, and cru- 
cified by the Avorld, Jesus Christ lived and worked 
and died like God; and it is the testimony of such 
infidels as Voltaire, Rousseau, Eenan, and others, that 
chat " young Hebrew " was above all the savans of the 
world, that he outlived and outdied its philosophers, 
that, whatever may be the surprises of the future, Je- 
sus Christ, even as a man, could never be surpassed. 
The world has produced some grand religious leaders, 
but not one has ever conquered it. jfSTot one has ever 
issued the universal proclamation, "Cbme," and not 



THE PERFECT MODEL. 137 

one has ever issued the universal commission, "6^0." 
The religion of Christ is a universal religion, meeting 
a universal want and involving a universal duty; and 
it has never been hampered by racial, social, or na- 
tional barriers. There have been such lights and lead- 
ers in history as Confucius, Mohammed, Swedenborg, 
the authors of Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Mormon- 
ism; but the lights of Asia, of Europe, of America, 
have all been extinguished in the "Light of the 
world." In their vagaries like eccentric comets, in 
their flickering like stars, in their waxing and waning 
like moons, they go out before the resplendent and 
universal glow of the " Sun of Kighteousness." Beech- 
er said, grandly: " Christ declared without qualifica- 
tion, 'I am the Light of the world.' What thunder- 
ous strokes should beat down the audacious man who 
should dare to say this! If Christ had not been the 
absolute One, he would have said: 'I am the moon, 
shining by night; but my spoused one, the sun, from 
whom I receive my beams, shines by day.' " 

Finally, how inspiring and transforming to stand 
perpetually before this Model, under the chisel of 
truth, handled by the Holy Spirit! It has been often 
said that a man instinctively drew himself higher up 
when he stood before Michael Angelo's statue of 
Apollo Belvedere. I remember the first time I looked 
upon the statue of "Washington how my mind ran back 
over his heroic struggle for the liberties of my coun- 
try, how his calm and well-balanced genius nerved 
and led a nation through the dread ordeal of the Rev- 
olution, how his lofty and unambitious spirit sacrificed 
all for the untokl glory of future generations, resist- 
ing every temptation to power, and consecrating all 
upon the altar of liberty and free government. My 



138 THE PERFECT MODEL. 

young heart thrilled with the inspiration of his char- 
acter, and with nobler hopes and aspirations I turned 
away toward the future and the work of life. But 
what is "Washington by the side of Christ, the living 
statue of Perfection before the gaze of every Chris- 
tian and of the world? Are you sorrowful? Be- 
hold the Man of sorrows, who bore your griefs and 
who takes them away! Are you sinful? Look upon 
him by whose stripes you are healed. Are you 
weary and heavy laden? There he stands, who said: 
" Come unto me, and ... ye shall find rest." 
Are you ignorant? He only is wisdom and truth. 
Are you fettered and hampered? " If the Son shall 
make you free, you shall be free indeed." Are you 
proud and ambitious? "I am meek and lowly of 
heart." Are you full of hate and. malice and re- 
venge? "Return good for evil, blessings for curs- 
ings; love your enemies." Are you fearful and un- 
believing amid the storms of temptation? "Be not 
afraid; it is I;" "my grace is sufiicient for thee." 
Are you lonely and forsaken? " I will not leave you 
comfortless." Areyou]30or? "All things are yours." 
Are you guilty, ruined, lost in despair? Behold your 
Redeemer and Saviour, and think of Mary Magdalene 
and the thief on the cross and the woman taken in 
adultery. Are you hungry, thirsty? Jesus is the 
Bread, the Water, of life. Are you a child? "Suf- 
fer the little children to come." Are you old and 
gray-headed? "I will never forsake nor leave thee." 
"What is it that Jesus is not to, or does not for, the 
saint or the sinner? He is "' all and in all," " Alpha 
and Omega," the "Author and Finisher of our faith." 
As our Model he combines all excellence and glory. 
He is the exhaustion of all goodness and greatness. 



THE PERFECT MODEL. 139 

" our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and re- 
demption; " and before this exquisite and living statue 
of every divine perfection every devout heart may be 
transformed into the only image of God which can 
be created, God exhausted himself in the master- 
piece of wisdom and work when he sent his Son and 
gave him to live and die for us that we might be his 
masterpiece in the divine art of portraiture and sculpt- 
ure for heavenly life and glory, to be forever exhib- 
ited in the galleries of eternity, the finished work of 
the Holy Spirit. We are to sit together in heavenly 
places at last in Christ Jesus, and we are, through 
him, forever to stand to the " praise of the glory of 
God's grace," the living and polished stones which 
are to construct and adorn the glorious temple of 
which Christ is the model, chief, elect, precious cor- 
ner-stone. Let us stand before him, and be chiseled 
after his likeness every day. 




DELIRIUM TREMENS. 




]N" the blackboard sketch before us we have the 
^ picture of a man with delirium tremens. It 
is one of the most horrible of all the effects 
^ of strong drink, and it is one of the most un- 
accountable. This form of insanity is seldom 
dangerous to any but the victim himself, and 
sometimes in his terror and fright he kills himself by 
accident, if not by suicide. He sees all sorts of gro- 
tesque and horrible apparitions, and he seldom hears 
or sees any thing pleasant. I once saw a man out in 
his yard shooting squirrels, hundreds of which he could 
see in the trees. I saw another one night who could 
see nothing but rats running over his bed, and ever 
and anon he would see his clothes lined with vermin, 
and with loathsome disgust he would rise from his 
bed, tear off his apparel, and shake off the lice. An- 
other I saw who imagined that his tongue was all 
pierced with fish-hooks, and he was continually try- 
ing to pull them out of his mouth, pitifully crying all 
the while with his imagined pain. I knew one man 
who never saw any thing but monkeys sporting and 
catching at him with their claws, and one night he 
imagined he saw a monster ringtailed monkey^ twen- 
ty feet high, coming down the street toward him, and 
he jumped out of a second-story window, breaking his 
(140) 



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DELIRIUM TREMENS. 143 

arm and his leg and almost crushing the life out of 
him. He lay for months upon what seemed to be a 
bed of death, and the last time I saw him he was drnnk 
again and on the way to the monkeys. Others see 
snakes and hobgoblins and abnormal monsters and 
thousand-legs and hideous human forms, mutilated, 
bloody, one-armed, one-legged, without eyes, and 
sometimes without heads. One poor fellow I knew 
died for want of sleep, because he said a crowd of 
devils ran up to his window and waked him up every 
time he fell into a doze. The most horrible, perhaps, 
of all these apparitions is that of snakes, when the in- 
ebriate imagines himself wreathed with them and that 
they are piercing him with their fangs all over his 
body, and wrapped around his neck, legs, and arms. 

When we come to reflect that all this illusion — this 
dreadful delusion — is to the victim of delirium a per- 
fect reality, we can have some conception of the hor- 
ror that seizes upon his mind, l^o persuasion, no ar- 
gument, by the most confidential friend on earth, can 
convince him to the contrary. "When he reaches a 
lucid moment (and he often seems perfectly rational 
about every thing else) he may be made to feel his 
hallucination, which he distinctly remembers; but 
while the paroxysm of insanity is upon him, this hell 
of drunkenness is absolutely real and beyond the pow- 
er of conviction to the contrary. Of all the pitiable 
and helpless objects in the world it is a strong yet 
powerless man tossed upon the waves of this wild sea 
of self-wrought and self-responsible delusion. It 
makes the man shudder with cold chills of horror, and 
his hair to stand on end, who witnesses it, and the 
most marvelous of all the enigmas of sin is that a vic- 
tim could ever so recover from such a state of tor- 
10 



144 DELIRIUM TKEMElSrS. 

meiit and fury as to repeat this dreadful drama of in- 
sanity and misery inexpressible and beyond the power 
of conception.- O mysterious depths of hell! O thou 
weird and fiendish nature of sin! thy problem is not 
solved in the madness of alcohol, but thy character is 
most faithfully portrayed and illustrated. 

I have often thought that delirium tremens was one 
of the best proofs of the existence of a hell, the ever- 
lasting punishment of sin. The mind or heart lost 
to all the influences of good, turned loose from all the 
moorings of virtue, and launched out upon the chaotic 
deep of its own fury created within, is but the picture 
of the lost soul cut loose from God and hope and ban- 
ished from the influential presence of all help and re- 
straint. Who can wonder at the Bible picture of a 
flame that is never quenched, of a worm that never 
dies, ever burning- and gnawing into the vitals of a 
lost and wrecked soul? and who can wonder at the 
natural exhibitions of that remorse which gnashes its 
teeth, weeps and wails, and curses God and self for- 
ever? What must be the horrid visions of a world 
"tumbled into anarchy," flitting with devils and hob- 
goblins created to aggravate our torment, and accom- 
panied by ten thousand creations of our own fancy, 
arising from the crimes and follies of an ill-spent life? 
Hell is a bottomless pit, illustrating the downward 
tread of human degradation, but it is a lake of fire 
and brimstone, representing the aggregation and the 
aggravation of a wicked life coming up in every form, 
the characteristic realizations of every shape of sin 
and the outcome and last analysis of every develop- 
ment of evil. ]S^othing but the delirium of whisky 
seems here below to foretaste, forecast, and prefigure 
our state in hell, and it would seem that such a thought 



DELIRIUM TREMEXS. 145 

-would alarm and awaken every victim of this vice to 
fly from the wrath of God wrought in the very laws 
of our being thus violated. The terrors of conscience 
under other crimes, such as murder and seduction and 
slander and other injuries to self and neighbor, often 
4rgue the presence of God in the soul and God in the 
punishment of sin. Men and women, the world over, 
fly in vain from conscience and God; and often they 
come back to confess, or commit suicide in order to 
get relief from their ills. This is hell mirrored and 
symbolized by the hand of God in the soul's inner 
consciousness, in spite of all resistance by will or 
counter-motive; but in the madness of alcoholic de- 
lirium, both hell and the devil are dragged up by the 
imagination, to pass in panoramic vision before the 
senses and the intellections, otherwise normal and ra- 
tional. Man's intuitions, in spite of infidelity, never 
go amiss in the faithful interpretation of divine truth 
and the soul's immortality and responsibility when 
the test of sin brings the mind to conscious con^dc- 
tion. We just know there is a God and a devil, a 
heaven and a hell, the need of a Saviour; and both 
the good and the bad, the glory and the horror of eter- 
nity, have their infallible foretaste, forecast, and coun- 
terpart in the present life. The heathen believes and 
knows this, and nothing but rationalism, blinded in 
the blaze of revealed light, ever gets learned and sat- 
isfied to the contrary in a state of. self-conceited and 
self-righteous morality. The poor, degraded sinner 
knows better, and sometimes I think the moralist is 
the worst and in the worst condition of all the sinners 
in the world, unless it is the persistent and ruined 
criminal who has lost all the elements of manhood 
and passed the day of grace. 



146 DELIRIUM TREMENS. 

The nature of delirium tremens is a most interest- 
ing study, and the comprehension of the subject might 
scientifically be the means of deterring many a man 
from strong drink. Alcohol has a great affinity for 
the brain, and it plays with harsh and dreadful note 
upon the nervous system. In the brain of the drunk- 
ard alcohol may be found without change or as- 
similation, and the brain being the very seat and cen- 
ter of the nervous system, this most delicate part of 
our organism is directly and immediately affected by 
this most powerful and dangerous stimulant, which 
always intoxicates when used in sufficient quantities. 
The nerves are thus paralyzed, and hence the brain, 
having lost the medium by which it communicates 
thought and emotion to the senses, becomes uncon- 
scious in a state of intoxication. In the repeated ef- 
fect of alcohol upon the nervous system, and espe- 
cially when this long-repeated effect is suspended, these 
paralyzed nerves begin to vibrate with a force which 
makes the whole body tremble; and in their disor- 
dered and abnormal vibration they convey confused and 
distorted conceptions from the brain to the senses; 
and hence, at intervals, the victim of habitual drink 
imagines as ^Dresent the hell of his vice in all the 
horrid shapes by which the confused brain plays back 
upon the vibratory nerves. Fancy and imagination 
take the throne of judgment and reason, and in the 
nature of things, somehow, hell takes the place of 
heaven, the devil takes the place of God, and the weird 
and hideous forms of sin, wrought out in our intuitive 
consciousness, revel and romp through the chambers of 
the brain. The victim of drink trembles like an aspen 
and is delirious, and this is why this form of insanity 
is called delirium tremens. Delirious trembling, accom- 



DELIRIUM TEEMEXS. 147 

panied by all sorts of dreadful hallucinations which 
interpret sin in the soul, illustrate its hell beyond by its 
hell here, and set all the forces of darkness to run riot 
through our chaotic being. Whisky simply makes 
chaos of the mind and heart, intellectually and moral- 
ly, .and delirium tremens adumbrates and intensifies 
that hell to come by the hell within, which dooms the 
drunkard from entrance into God's kingdom. 

Why will ye die? Young man, why will you 
tamper with the maddening bowl? You think you 
will never reach the limit of this fearful malady of 
the besotted and ruined drunkard. This is one of the 
delusive dreams of fascinating whisky. You expect 
to stop, but every drunkard in hell, or on the way to 
hell, once lifted that poisoned chalice of delusion to 
his quivering lips. Lay not this flattering unction to 
your soul, and do not help to lay it to the souls of oth- 
ers by your example. Young men and women, let me 
beg you to rise up in this your day and generation, and 
swear allegiance to temperance and sobriety. Band 
together to save the drunkards, and pray God's daily 
curse upon the saloon, this Gorgon monster, this hydra- 
headed, hell-born and hell-fired serpent, which lifts 
his gigantic form and stretches his Titanic length 
across the destinies of the fairest country ever blight- 
ed beneath the sun. Mothers and fathers, teach your 
children to hate the bottle, to tremble as they pass the 
bar-room, and to shudder when they see the victim of 
drink; and, little children here to-day, let me beg you 
to never touch, taste, nor handle the accursed thing 
you call whisky. Think of the madmen made by the 
bottle to-day, and remember that some of you, some 
day, may become the raving maniacs I have de- 
scribed — ragged, trembling, palsied, paralyzed, and 



148 DELIRIUM TEEMEXS. 

filled with all the horrors of hell, even before yon reach 
that dread abode which the drunkard's delirium typ- 
ifies. Will one of you ever become such a besotted 
fiend? In all probability some of these now innocent 
young ones will fill a drunkard's grave, if they touch 
the damning cup. God pity the young and tender 
heart, and God forbid the destiny is my humble prayer. 
Let me close with a picture drawn by Dr. Talmage 
on this subject: " God only knows what the drunkard 
sufiers. Pain files on every nerve and travels every 
muscle and gnaws every bone and burns with every 
flame and stings with every poison and pulls at him 
with every torture. "What reptiles crawl over his 
creeping limbs! what fiends stand by his midnight 
pillow! what groans tear his ear! what horrors shiver 
through his soul ! Talk of the rack, talk of the In- 
quisition, talk of the funeral-pyre, talk of the crush- 
ing Juggernaut — he feels them all at once. Have you 
ever been in the ward of the hospital where these in- 
ebriates are dying, the stench of their wounds driving 
back the attendants, their voices sounding through 
the night? They shriek, and they rave, and they 
pluck out their hair by handsful, and bite their nails 
into the quick, and then they groan and they shriek 
and they blaspheme, and they ask the keepers to kill 
them. 'Stab me; smother me; strangle me; take the 
devils off" me ! ' O it is no fancy sketch ! That thing is 
going on in hospitals— ay, it is going on in some of 
the finest residences in every neighborhood on this 
continent." 






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The Lightning-bug Gonvertior. 




was about one o'clock at night when I was 
^ awakened from sleep by a low, peculiar. 



noise, which indicated that a 
stealthy procession of some kind was pass- 
ing my door. I softly peeped out of my front 
window, when I beheld a body of beings pass- 
ing along with small lanterns dimly lighted, but each 
intermittently growing brighter occasionally than the 
lantern seemed to burn. I heard little murmurs of 
"Protest" and a "Meeting" to be held down in a 
thicket close by, and, quickly dressing myself,! fur- 
tively stole out into the road and followed the lantern 
concourse. JSTear a little spring the crowd had gath- 
ered, when, after peering more closely through the 
dark, I discovered that it was a lightning-bug con- 
vention. They began to sparkle pretty generally and 
profusely, chattering about something which, for the 
confusion of voices, I could not at first understand. 
At last one of them arose with stately demeanor and 
proposed to elect a chairman, who should call the 
meeting to order and state the object of the assem- 
blage. He put in nomination a venerable, old-fash- 
ioned kind of fellow by the name of Tallowwick, who 
was promptly elected by acclamation, and who, after 
a few raDid flashes of his lantern, took his seat and 

(151) 



152 THE LIGHTlSriNG-BUG CONVENTION. 

called the glimmering assembly to order, at which the 
multitude of lanterns seemed to flicker a little dimly, 
as every one seemed to have his lantern shining from 
his coat-tail, and as they seemed all to sit down upon 
their own little light. 

In a brief speech the chairman addressed the as- 
sembly, as near as I can recollect, as follows: "Fel- 
low-citizens of the lightning-bug fraternity: Every 
lightning-bug has his night, but he never has had his 
day. In fact, he wants no day, as his glory is known 
only by the night. Even here we are often discount- 
ed by the moon and the stars, and it would be better 
for us and the world if they could be blotted out, for 
then our light could shine without diminution upon 
the darkness of this benighted sphere. Few indeed 
are the beclouded nights in which we can shine forth 
in all the glow and splendor of our being to light the 
nightly travelers on their way, who are guided by our 
subcorporal scintillations. But this is not our great- 
est difficulty and j)rivation. "We have no chance at 
the day at all. One-half of our useful existence is 
blotted out altogether, while the other half is dimin- 
ished and depreciated. The sun is our great enemy, 
and hence the enemy of the world, and in the way of 
our light, which is the glory of the earth. It is said 
by John Jacob Jasper that the ' sun do move,' and I 
believe it. He comes forth daily, and only to put out 
our light, and for many long, weary hours we have to 
hide in the brush in order to escape his useless heat 
and to shun the unnecessary intensity of his invidious 
contrast. The object of this meeting is to protest 
against his rising any more, and to institute measures 
which shall secure, for the good of the world, this 
most desirable end. We may compromise with nat- 



THE LIGHTNING-BUa CONVEJS^TIOiS^. 153 

ure, if necessary, by a generous toleration of the moon 
and the stars, as by the obliteration of the day we 
would have more time for the display of our light; 
but tlie sun must be stopped. We shall no longer 
stand his overshadowing competition and division of 
time so dear to the world on our account. The meet- 
ing is, now open, and the subject before you for dis- 
cussion, and I trust we shall have unanimity and a 
hearty co-operation in the decision of this momentous 
question." 

Amid a tremendous rattling of wings and flashing 
of lanterns the chairman took his seat, when a Mr. 
Pettifiicker sprung upon the limb of a small bush and 
harangued the audience for a long while in the sever- 
est denunciations of the sun, caricaturing especially 
his spots, and at the conclusion of his very able speech 
he moved the appointment of a committee of three of 
the most enlightened lightning-bugs of the assembly, 
who should draft resolutions expressive of the sense 
of the august body. The chairman looked wisely 
over the audience for a moment, and named the fol- 
lowing committee: Messrs. Fizzleflash, Twinkleflit, 
and Sparkletitter. He directed the appointees, with 
solemn instructions, to bring in a paper worthy the 
dignity of the occasion, the subject, and the .vast as- 
sembly gathered, and the little committee lighted out 
into the darkness. 

In the absence of the committee several distin- 
guished bugs spoke for the good of the cause. Among 
them was a very old and feebly flickering bug by the 
ijame of Scintililiput Miniluxglint vociferously called 
for, and of great authority, as I judged by the length 
of his name, the moss on his back, and the enthusiasm 
he seemed to inspire. He said that he had lived for 



154 THE LIGHTiSTING-BUa COjSrVEISrTIO:^. 

several weeks, and was well versed in the history of 
the world. Greece and Rome had never known of 
such things as gas and electric lights, and so far as 
he could learn their inimitable civilizations had never 
seriously interfered with the lightning-bug's vocation. 
His ancestors could traverse the streets of Babylon and 
I^ineveh, the greatest cities the world ever built, with- 
out ever meeting the invidious gleam of a single mod- 
ern light, and every lightning-bug of that age could 
walk in the marvelous light and liberty of his profes- 
sion without interference or disparagement. ISTot so 
now in these sad and degenerate days of the world's 
weak and corrupted civilizations, which had of neces- 
sity to supplement the fire-fly's natm-al and healthy 
glow with a thousand artificial illuminations, indica- 
tive of and preventive of modern iniquity and eflPem- 
inacy. "But," said the old bug, "this artificial sham- 
work of the age still leaves us the country to shine in. 
"We enjoy as yet the backwoods at night. We still 
have an existence in spite of modern progress, so 
called, and in spite of the sun; and I am glad, after 
so many ages of oppression and submission on our 
part, to see at last this noble movement in the direc- 
tion of our liberty and the world's long-felt want. 
We are.good enough for, and we are the necessity of, 
the world at all times. I trust our able committee 
will devise means — " 

Just at this moment the committee came in. All 
was silence, but the little lanterns flashed with a fresh- 
er glow. Many rose to their feet, and their coat-tails 
twinkled amazingly. The chairman, Mr. Fizzleflash, 
off'ered the following preamble and resolutions : 

Whereas for many ages, without formal protest, our light 
has been extinguished by day through the imperious and des- 



THE LIGHTNING-BU& CONVENTION. 155 

potic disregard, of the sun; and whereas over half of our glory 
and influence has been lost to this suffering and injured world; 
and whereas nature has allowed an unjust discrimination against 
us in the unequal distribution of time and light by the sun; and 
whereas we think there is no necessity for the sun at all ; and 
whereas we think, in the light of the lightning-bug, the sun is 
a great humbug; therefore, be it 

1. Resolved, That we hereby enter our solemn protest against 
the sun's ever rising and shining again. 

2. That in case our protest against the sun is not favorably 
received we hereby institute and organize an indignation meet- 
ing, to be held at this place every night for one month until 
we extort from Nature proper consideration for our rights, 
privileges, and liberties, so long disparaged and trampled upon. 

3. That in the event our protest and indignation fail a gen- 
eral convention of all the lightning-bugs of this country and 
of the world be called for the purpose of organizing a general 
revolution and rebellion against Nature. 

4. That if revolution and rebellion fail, after having done all 
we can to assert our rights and liberties for the good of the 
world, then we hereby pledge ourselves and our general frater- 
nity to permanently withdraw our light from the face of crea- 
tion. 

5. That a copy of these resolutions be sent to Dame Nature 
and her favorite sun, if indeed he shall ever show his face again. 

The resolutions were loudly received and adopted. 
The President proceeded to address the assembly Avith 
some closing remarks. His coat-tail was flashing 
intermittently with much ardor and zeal. He began 
a fierce and bitter tirade against all other light but 
the light of lightning-bugs ; and I perceived that the 
coat-tails of all the audience began to glow and flash 
more rapidly and intensely, reaching unusual brill- 
iancy. Just then I noticed that the day began to 
break, and the bugs began to grow a little restless and 
uneasy. The speaker continued to orate, but his elo- 
quence began to ooze out. The dawn grew on apace. 



156 THE LIGHTlSTING-BUa COjSTVEIsrTIOlSr. 

and I noticed that the pocket-lanterns began to grow 
dim and to go out. Tlie light of day kindled brighter 
and brighter still, and soon it was hard to see the au- 
dience at all, and the orator's voice had entirely ceased. 
Suddenly the sun began to rise. Old Sol peeped 
above the horizon, and his broad and luminous shoul- 
ders shoved the mists out of the way and pitched the 
clouds in every direction. He rolled in grandeur 
above the east, and in my rapture I had forgotten the 
lightning-bug convention entirely. Thinking of where 
I was and why I was there, I turned again to see, and, 
behold, there was nothing left of the assembly at all. 
There was not a lightning-bug to be seen; every lan- 
tern had been extinguished, and not a voice was heard. 
They had all tied; at least I could not see one of them. 
The lightning-bug assembly had been dis-SOL-ved, 

This was a dream I had once, in my imagination, in 
a certain town where it was proposed to introduce the 
public school system, and a lot of the old fogies got to- 
gether and protested against the movement. The public 
schools were introduced all the same, and the old fogy 
convention never met any more. The same dream 
has often occurred to me when I have heard of the 
liquor men gathering in convention to oppose the tem- 
perance cause. Their light is made of alcoholic fire, 
and it generally shines in their stomachs, something 
like the lightning-bug's; and their protests against 
the rising sun of the great temperance reform will ul- 
timately result about like the resolutions of the light- 
ning-bug convention. The lightning-bug fraternity 
represents the universally small critic and persecutor, 
and every rising genius and rising cause of truth and 
righteousness has been opposed and protested by these 
diminutive midnight illuminators. Galileo and Coper- 






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THE LIGHTNIJSTG-BUG COIS^VEXTIOX. 159 

nicus and Harvey and Morse and Fulton and Stephen- 
son and Columbus and Washington were all protested 
by lightnmg-bug conventions; but these sublime lu- 
minaries of discovery, invention, and progress rose 
upon the world nevertheless. Christ himself had the 
J ewish Sanhedrim and the Pilates and the Herods as- 
sembled against him; but the Sun of righteousness 
rose upon the world with healing in his wings, and his 
light is fast dissolving all the conventions of darkness 
the devil ever assembled with his ignes-fatui or his fire 
and brimstone. 

There will be lightning-bug conventions till the 
end of time; but the sun will nevertheless continue 
to rise and roll on in the grandeur of his luminous 
circuit. JN^othing can prevent ignorance and prej- 
udice from opposing every form of truth and right- 
eousness, and selfishness and ambition will continue 
to suppress the light which shines against human 
pride and interest. One part of the world blindly 
fights against God and progress, while the other know- 
ingly and willfully opposes whatever crosses the path 
of vile aspiration and self-seeking enterprise. We 
see this sad fact illustrated every day in the methods 
and schemes of politics, business, social convention- 
alities, infidelity, and vice. Partisan zeal opposes 
even the good in its opponents; trusts and monopolies 
seek to kill down competition in weak and struggling 
enterprises for the good of a country. Ingersollism 
fights God, aristocracy crushes down upon poverty 
and all the revolutionizing ideas of right and liberty 
which the struggling masses assert and win; and the 
myrmidons and minions of vice invent and put in op- 
eration every means to circumvent and destroy virtue 
and good. But in the familiar language of Bryant; 
11 



160 THE LIGHTjSTIN^G-BUG CO^fVEXTIOJST. 

Tnitli, crushed to earth, shall rise again: 

The eternal years of God are hers; 
While error, wounded, writhes in pain. 

And dies among her worshipers. 

The sun " do move," and will rise; and all the light- 
ning-bug conventions in the world may protest and 
oppose in vain. Truth and righteousness grow best 
by conflict with error and iniquity, in the long run. 
Their history is a long series of rises and declines, but 
ever rising higher above the undulations of decay and 
opposition at every successive step of progress toward 
the mountain-top of time and glory. Truly the " eter- 
nal years of God " are theirs. They possess within 
themselves the inherent element of development and 
of revolution against inertia and corruption, and they 
mount higher at every stage of conflict with ever}^ 
opposing element of falsehood and evil, even when 
for long periods the dark night of defeat and despair 
has seemed to settle upon the fields of contest. The 
deluge came, and swept away an old world to start a 
new one. Jesus came, and turned the world upward 
to God from its universally downward career in the 
height of civilization. The Reformation came, and 
reversed the shadowy doom of mediaeval superstition. 
Jesus will come again to lift the last dark decline of 
the world's loftiest leap in civilization into the glory 
of the millennium. The devil, Avith his last lightning- 
bug convention arrayed " against the camp of the 
saints," will after all be "loosed for a little season," 
and then heaven will come down to earth, and God 




■ "■■■■■■ '■ ■'■■^*'^"^^^^-^-^^^ ^ . .■■ :,;.;. i - 








POT GALLING KETTLE BLAGK. 



^jSFE day the cook went out of the kitchen to 
be gone npon a visit to some of her neigh- 
bors. The pot, after some time arose and 
dressed himself and rubbed flour over his face, 
looked into the glass, and thought himself hand- 
some. Not to be outdone, the kettle arose and 
dressed and did likewise, also claiming beauty and 
comeliness. Whereat the pot began to call the ket- 
tle black, and the kettle grew furious and steamed at 
the nose, while the pot continued to laugh and to 
mock. Such was the confusion and excitement that 
all the cooking utensils became involved, skipped and 
danced, and took part, some on the one side and some 
on the other. The tongs, the shovel, the waffle-iron, 
the spoon, the dish-pan, the stove — all assumed vari- 
ous airs and grimaces, and became involved in the 
general row. About this time the cook returned, and, 
hearing the noise, rushed into the room with her broom, 
and broke up the disturbance. The pot returned to 
his place in the corner, the kettle to his position on the 
stove, and all the smaller fry hunted their homes under 
the silencing brush of the cook. A severe lecture fol- 
lowed, in which the cook taught the moral that one 
man as black as black could be should not call an- 
other black no blacker than he. The pot was very 

(163) 



164 POT CALLIN-& KETTLE BLACK. 

mucli ashamed and rebuked under the full conscious- 
ness of his blackness and presumption, and the ket- 
tle, though vindicated, felt his blackness still and kept 
his place. 

This fable finds an illustration in a striking text of 
the word of Grod. Jesus said to his disciples : " Judge 
not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment 
ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what meas- 
ure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." The 
Apostle Paul said to the Romans : " Therefore thou art 
inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: 
for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest 
thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. 
. . . And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest 
them which do such things, and doest the same, that 
thou shalt escape the judgment of God? . . . Thou 
therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thy- 
self ? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost 
thou steal? Thou that say est a man should not com- 
mit adultery, dost thou commit adultery?" Alas! 
alas! here is the great sin of the world. We judge 
others, no guiltier than we, of the same things of which 
we are guilty ourselves, and it is oftenest the case that 
the guiltier a man is himself, the more condemnatory 
he is of others even far less guilty than he. This is 
the pot calling the kettle black; and of all the beings 
whom God will judge most harshly it will be the man 
who condemns in others that of which he himself is 
most guilty. 

Herein arises one of the peculiarities of human nat- 
ure — nay, one of the mysteries of poor fallen man. 
It is a marvelous inconsistency, an imaccountable con- 
tradiction in judgment and morals, that the pot as 
black as midnight should call the kettle black; and 



POT CALLING KETTLE BLACK. 165 

yet nothing is more common than to hear wicked peo- 
ple — people not even trying to cover their sins under 
the garb of hypocrisy — calling their neighbors names 
and exposing their sins. This is not only so where 
the sins are different, but where they are the same. 
The drunkard abuses the drunkard, the thief decries 
the thief, the slanderer scandalizes the slanderer. It 
seems perfectly consistent to some people to berate 
the sins of others when their own sins are not of the 
same character. Even here it would seem that jus- 
tice and decency would dictate charity, which says, 
Though your sins differ in caste, they agree in quality; 
but when two men guilty of the same thing, in quan- 
tity, quality, and character, judge each other, it seems 
unaccountable. What is the philosophy of it? The 
problem can only be solved in the shameless presump- 
tion and blindness of sin itself, and the fact argues 
how little people study themselves in the light of them- 
selves, much less in the looking-glass of God and of 
their neighbors. How can a man who understands 
and appreciates his own iniquity find fault with other 
people? The midnight veil of selfishness is the worst 
form of sin's blindness, and no man can ever rise 
above this most criminal inconsistency until examina- 
tion of self, in the light of justice, leads him to see 
himself as God and others see him. 

O wad some power the giftie gie us! 
I have often thought of Shakespeare's maxim : 

Forbear to judge, for we are sinners all. 
And the great poet, often so profoundly philosophic- 
al and theological, here agrees with Christ and Paul. 
How fcAv ever adopt the golden rule: "Whatsoever 
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so 



166 POT CALLING KETTLE BLACK. 

likewise unto them!" If we loved God with all the 
heart, and our neighbor as ourselves, if we loved God 
supremely and our neighbor unselfishly, we should 
have no sin to see in ourselves or others ; but since we 
are " sinners all," and our love so imperfect, we could 
at least adopt the golden rule. How few, indeed, 
are there who "think no evil," believe all things, 
bear all things, and cover their neighbors' sins with 
the mantle of charity and sympathy ! I love that old 
stanza of Pope : 

Teach me to feel another's woe, 

To hide the fault I see ; 
That mercy I to others show, 

That mercy show to me. 

The sin of harsh judgment and of unfriendly criti- 
cism can never be cured in any man or woman so 
long as he or she is lynx-eyed toward neighbor and 
mole-eyed to self. Every one of us should remember 
in the familiar expression of Shenstone that " a man 
has generally the good or ill qualities which he attrib- 
utes to mankind;" and wdien we judge others we 
should ever ask the question propounded by the great 
poet. 

How would you be, 
If He, which is at the top of judgment. 
Should judge you as you are ? 

This reminds us of the sad and awful fact that we 
shall be judged as we judge. The standards we raise 
for others will be the standard by which God wall 
judge us. As Richelieu says in that famous play, 
" Wise judges are we of each other! " It is generally 
true that we judge righteously of others' sins. "We 
go to the standard of God when we see others' faults ; 
and it is up to this standard that God will hold us. 



POT CALLING- KETTLE BLACK. 167 

A man casts off his erring wife, turns his fallen sister 
from his door, forsakes his mother and his daughter 
in vice; and he thinks himself perfectly justified in 
consigning to disgrace and abandonment the flesh of 
his flesh, and the bone of his bone ; but let him remem- 
ber, if he has any sin himself, that so God will aban- 
don him at the judgment; "for we must all appear 
before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one 
may receive the things done in his body, according to 
that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." How 
many men I have heard to say, "If there was no hell, 
I would give a considerable sum to have one made; 
there are some men I think ought to go to hell." 
Even the man who thinks there ought to be no hell 
for himself thinks there ought to be one for somebody 
else; and just what he judges of others he will share 
for himself, if he lives and dies in sin. How often the 
legislator who makes the law, how often the judge and 
the jury who execute it, are guilty of the very crimes 
their laws condemn! The lawyer who prosecutes his 
victim before the court, the very complainant who 
presses the defendant, are reeking in the very sin 
they are seeking to condemn and punish. The pot 
is calling the kettle black; and, worse than all, in 
the light of his own blackness and guilt he is seek- 
ing to inflict the penalty of his own crime upon 
another. This is all just and right as a matter of 
vindicating- human justice before the civil courts of 
our country; but the standard lifted here will be 
the standard lifted before that dread bar where there 
will be no advocate to plead, where no j)lea will 
lodge, and where no witness but the self-accusing 
conscience will appear. The golden rule will be re- 



168 POT CALLING KETTLE BLACK. 

done to us, the measure we have meted out to oth- 
ers shall be meted to us again. 

"Worse than all, man is so often unjust in his judg- 
ment toward others. The pot sometimes calls the 
pitcher black, and it is mean enough for him to call 
the kettle black. This is a world of injustice, and if 
it were not true, in the language of a beautiful writer, 
that "the injustice of men subserves the justice of 
God, and often his mercy," this life would be the 
ipost miserable of all existence to a large number of 
people. But few of the unjust ever get justice at the 
hands of the law; and the sufferers of injustice and 
persecution have no other vindication this side of 
heaven, where "sits," as Shakespeare says, "a judge 
that no king can corrupt." God forbid that I should 
ever lie down and die with an unjust judgment unre- 
pented and unamended; and let me ever adopt the 
maxim of Mason while I live : " Judge thyself with a 
judgment of sincerity, and thou wilt judge others with 
charity." The older I get the more charitably I try 
to judge. I want to leave myself in the hands of God, 
not to judge, but to show me mercy, through Him who 
suffered judgment in my stead; and I would gladly 
and willingly leave the worst human being at the feet 
of Jesus. I am glad the thief went from the cross to 
paradise; and I am willing to have universal salvation 
true, if God wills to save all, through faith, by the 
blood of Jesus. For the purpose of social purity, and 
in the vindication of just standards, we must "judge," 
here below, "the tree by its fruit;" but let me leave 
the final judgment of myself and of my fellow-men to 
God. I wish all could be saved, if it were possible; 
and I shall never rejoice, even in the judgment which 
condemns a soul to hell, although I shall say "Amen I " 



POT CALLIlSrG KETTLE BLACK. 169 

to every righteous decision of God. " You shall have 
justice, Pat," said a lawyer to his client, when about 
to be arraigned before the court for some crime he had 
committed. "And, by faith, that's not fwhat I'm af- 
ther," said the Irishman. I am not after justice when 
I stand before God, except satisfied justice in Jesus 
Christ who paid my debt, in vindication of God's law. 
I am after mercy. There is not a day nor an hour 
nor a moment upon which I could stand for the per- 
fection essential to eternal life and gloiy. Grhrist is 
"my righteousness," and I only wish every human 
being could say as much; and upon this consideration 
I want to base, first of all, my charity for all men. 
God forbid that I should be chargino- others with the 
sins I possess, or with sins at all, so long as I am as 
guilty as they. Much more, keep me from scandaliz- 
ing those purer than myself — not only calling the ket- 
tle black, but calling the pitcher black. We all have 
to be saved from sin, from the same hell, alike; and 
if there are any beings in the universe who ought to 
be charitable to each other, they are human beings. 

Truly does Peter urge: "Above all things have fer- 
vent charity among yourselves: for charity [love] 
shall cover the multitude of sins." I love to think of 
Shakespeare's man who 

Hath a tear for pity, and a hand 
Open as day for melting charity. 

And never did Burns sing sweeter than when he said. 
Then gently scan your brother man, 

Still gentler sister woman; 
Though they may gang a kennin wrang, 
To step aside is human. 
Of course there is a mock charity which sympa- 
thizes with wrong and which rejoices in iniquity, in- 



170 POT CALLING KETTLE BLACK. 

stead of rejoicing in the truth. "A God all mercy," 
said Young, "is a God unjust;" and what is true of 
God in this respect should be true of us. "Nothing 
emboldens sin so much as mercy," said the " Bard of 
Avon." It must be a very indifferent nature, or one 
contradictorily good and evil at the same time, to al- 
low charity to subvert justice, where justice vindi- 
cated is mercy in the end; but at the very best every 
poor human being should temper justice with mercy 
in every essential decision and dealing with his fel- 
low-man. It may be very trite and common to re- 
peat it, but Shakespeare is next to the Bible on this 
point when he makes Portia speak to Shylock in the 
following language: 

The quality of mercy is not strained; 

It droppeth as the gentle dew from heaven 

Upon the place beneath; it is twice blessed: 

It blessetli him that gives, and him that- takes. 

'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes 

The throned monarch better than his crown: 

His scepter shows the force of temporal power, 

The attribute to awe and majesty. 

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings. 

It is an attribute to God himself, 

And earthly power doth then show likest God's, 

When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, 

Though justice be thy plea, consider this. 

That in the cause of justice none of us 

Should see salvation: ice do pray for mercy, 

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 

The deeds of mercy. 



'fWW^ 






f I'.,:' 



''.IK,-. >■ i -JWi 



:( -ir 





Sowing rrb Reaping Wild Oats. 




:HE picture illustrates a bold and vigorous 
^^2 youth starting out in life to sow wild oats 
'^' upon the field of his existence. Every man 
has a field to sow, to cultivate, and to reap; 
and he will plant it with good or bad seed, and 
at best he will have some tares among the wheat, 
however he sows. Death starts upon the track of this 
wild and vicious young man, and follows him idly 
through the period of his lusty planting, and when he 
turns in middle life or old age to reap his crop death 
still follows and helps to gather his sheaves for the 
grave and the judgment. Sometimes the harvest is 
reached sooner, sometimes later; but surely the har- 
vest will be reaped, and the grave will be reached, 
as seen in the second picture. How true it is of 
thousands : 

Sowing the seed o£ a ling'ring pain, 
Sowing the seed of a maddened brain. 
Sowing the seed of a tarnished name, 
Sowing the seed of eternal shame — 
O what shall the harvest be? 

This is the crop which the young man reaps who 
sows the field of life with wild oats; and sometimes 
he begins to reap almost as soon as he begins to sow. 
The crop will correspond with the seed sown, and al- 

(173) 



ITdt SOWING AXD EEAPINa WILD OATS. 

though, as in all planting, every seed does not spring 
up and mature for the harvest, yet it is true that in 
this crop the seeds sown will as nearly all come up and 
be harvested as any other crop which a man ever 
planted. 

The Bible teaches the truth on this subject with all 
its wonderful common-sense accuracy : " Whatsoever 
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that 
soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; 
but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit 
reap life everlasting." Of this, Paul says, let no man 
be " deceived," for " God is not mocked." If we had 
no Bible, in the nature of things this text would be 
true, for we cannot sow without reaping, nor can we fail 
to reap in kind the crop we sowed, or else reap the kin- 
dred consequences or punishment attached to the 
planting of evil upon the fields of life. However 
shrewd we may be, however much we may cover our 
tracks from others, however we may imagine ourselves 
fortified against results, however we may conceive 
that God has forgotten or that his law has been healed 
of its violations b}^ time, or that nature has outgrown 
its evil crop by a better culture — it is nevertheless true 
thjit we shall reap tliat we have sown, either in kind, 
consequence, or punishment. We cannot eradicate 
the scars upon conscience, the stains upon the heart, 
the blunt upon sensibility; nor can we recall the 
blight and the ruin we have inflicted upon others. 
Reputation may be restored or character repaired be- 
fore men; but crime's consequences and God's pun- 
ishments await, in some form, even the man convert- 
ed from the error of his sowing. God can forgive 
our record, but he never reverses it; and he does not 
avert, even for the saint, at least the temporal results 




^^-l, L 



sowiisra axd eeapixg wild oats. 1 i i 

of depravity and wrong, if he once wasted the fields 
of life by sowing wild oats. He suffers, though saved, 
much loss even in eternity as well as much sorrow in 
time. 

But little is required to illustrate these truths sl^ated. 
If I wreck my physical constitution, shatter my mind, 
harden my sensibilities, regeneration cannot repair the 
loss, nor can it rid me of the regrets and consequences 
of irreparable evil upon myself and others. Religion 
may divert my soul into new and higher channels of 
life, make me hopeful and happy in view of eternity, 
but it cannot restore imbecility and dilapidation, nor 
pluck up the roots of bitterness sown in my carnal 
nature. Samson was sustained by God's grace to the 
dying hour, and he died ''in the faith;" but grace 
could not give back his lost character nor his lost 
eyes, nor relieve him of the miseries of his situation 
and the pangs of his folly. God forgave David's sin 
according to grace, before J^athan put his parable, 
but he did not relieve David from the bitter tears of 
repentance nor save him from the life-long curse of 
his sin, which fell in kind and kindred consequences 
upon his own head and house. Haman must hang 
on his own gallows erected for Mordecai. He that 
digs a ditch for others must himself fall into it. You 
ruin some man's family, and some man will ruin yours. 
Drag down some innocent victim to ruin, and some- 
body will drag you or yours down. At all events, 
the consequences or the penalty of your sins some- 
time, somehow, somewhere, will be sure to follow 
you, converted or unconverted. " Whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap." Jacob cheated Esau, 
and Laban cheated him. He deceived his father with 
the skin of a kid in order to get Esau's blessing, and 



178 sowiisT^G a:n^d eeapin& wild oats. 

his sous deceived him with the blood of a kid, into 
which they had dipped Joseph's coat of many colors, 
and he went down to the grave with sorrow and gray 
hairs. " Few and evil have been the days of the 
years of my life," he said, before he came to die. '' Be 
not deceived, God is not mocked; " and be sure your 
sin will find you out and follow you up. God and 
nature are sure to get even with us for every violation 
of law, physical, mental, or moral. Stick your finger 
in the fire, and you will get burned. Even grace does 
not escape the reign of law as a rule of the present 
life, however it may take us from under the law for 
the life which is to come. God's hand is often heav- 
ier here below upon his own children than upon the 
wicked. Alas for such men as Moses and Saul and 
Samson and David and Solomon and Jacob when they 
sin! 

Another thing': Our reaping is always more abun- 
dant than our sowing. If a man sows wheat, he gets 
wheat. Cabbage brings cabbage, and mustard pro- 
duces mustard; but a good sowing brings forth some 
thirty, some sixty, some a hundred-fold more than 
the sowing. One glass of whisky leads to the drink- 
ing of a hogshead full and a life-time of debauchery, 
shame, and misery. One little theft ruins a whole ca- 
reer; one indiscretion destroys a reputation; one lust- 
ful kiss or embrace leads to the ruin of a life-time of 
virtue and honor. A little leak in the hulk of char- 
acter sinks the ship of life in the mid-ocean of great- 
ness and renown. " He that sows to the wind shall 
reap the whirlwind." IS'one can tell what one little 
seed planted in evil may bring forth in the long run 
of time. The young clerk stole a nickel, and he final- 
ly goes to the penitentiary for embezzling the funds 



SOWIXG AXD KEAPIX& WILD OATS. 179 

of a bank. Benedict Arnold died the traitor of his 
country, and his terrible end may be traced to the be- 
ginning of crime in youth. George Washington died 
the father of his country, and he would not lie when 
a little boy. What consequences spring from small 
sources! The oak comes from an acorn, and the Mis- 
sissippi flows from ten thousand little springs. Stu- 
pendous evils develop from Avild oats scattered upon 
the soil of vicious hearts, destroying often the grand- 
est and mightiest lives. Solomon the wisest, David 
the best, Samson the strongest, fell by sowing to lust ; 
and the consequences — personally, socially, national- 
ly, religiously — have never yet been outgrown. Thou- 
sands have gone, are still going, to hell as they stum- 
ble over the sins of these men; and if they had to be 
judged apart from saving grace, according to their 
sins and the consequences of the same, their doom 
would be the most fearful and damnable of all men 
who perhaps have ever lived. 

Again, we are much longer reaping than we are 
sowing. If we reap in kind or kindred consequences, 
if we always reap more than we sow, it is also true 
that the harvest, including its growth and culture, is 
far more protracted than the season of sowing. It 
doesn't take long to sow a crop of wild oats, but O 
how long we are in reaping the superabundant crop! 
In fact, the lost sinner, dying in unbelief and impeni- 
tence, never does get through the harvest; and often 
the child of God reaps and reaps on to the day of his 
death, even down to old age. Diseased habits early 
formed become constitutional and second nature, and 
sometimes they have paroxysms of return in the best 
of men, filling life with temptations and miseries un- 
told. Many a Christian totters to the grave under 



180 SOWIIS^G AND EBAPIXG WILD OATS. 

the ills of early dissipation, and many a one lives in 
life-long warfare with old sins which make existence 
useless and unhappy, and which might have been 
avoided by early conversion and culture. One-half 
of many a Christian's life is lost trying to keep down 
the sprouts which spring from the roots of bitterness 
and woe grafted by early culture and habit in evil, 
and nothing short of death and eternity will put an 
end to an otherwise needless struggle. It takes a long 
time to repair, if we ever do, an injury done to our 
fearfully and wonderfully made being, and nothing 
short of God's grace can ever finally rid us of the 
consequences of sowing to sin and the devil. The 
harvest, however, we are certain to reap sooner or 
later, here or hereafter, in some form or other; and 
the most fearful part of the sinner's curse consists, if 
cut off in final impenitence and unbelief, in having to 
gather the everlasting harvest of his wild sowing. 

There is a diabolical argument that every man, some 
time in life, must sow his wild oats. This is the sub- 
tlest lie of the devil. How few have ever sown to sin 
in age who did not sow in youth! The middle-aged 
and the old occasionally lust, embezzle, murder, al- 
though life behind them seemed good. These men 
sometimes go from the church and the Sunday-school 
to the x^enitentiary and the gibbet, but generally they 
have been sowing to sin in secret. The tree has grown 
up and grown old with a rotting defect in the hidden 
heart, and though externally symmetrical and beauti- 
ful, the mighty oak would fall of its own weight 
against the blast of temptation. JN'o, no; they who 
do not sow wild oats in youth, they who sow to the 
Spirit in early life, seldom sow to evil in age, and sel- 
dom or never fail or fall. 



SOWHSTG AND KEAPI]Sr& WILD OATS. 181 

Children, young men, and maidens, why not sow 
now to the Spirit, and reap life everlasting? " Remem- 
ber now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while 
the evil days come not," They who seek God early 
shall find him, and they that sow early to God shall 
reap early and late and always the harvests certain to 
spring up in life and upon the evergreen fields of 
eternity. Lay up your treasure in heaven, where the 
bank never fails and where the cashier never steals, 
and where the gold never cankers. Instead of death 
upon your track, the angels of God will camp round 
about you upon the fields of life, and when the sowing 
and the reaping are finished these angels will gather 
you and your harvest home. Cast your bread upon 
the waters of eternity, and it will be forever gathered 
in the endless rewards of Him who numbers the hairs 
of your head, and who honors even a cup of cold 
water given in charity. Make not the field of life a 
drear desert, sown with inertia and ease, nor make it a 
wilderness of woe, planted with infidelity and immo- 
rality. Make it a beautiful garden-spot, scattered with 
the seeds of kindness, blooming with the flowers of 
happiness, fragrant with the perfume of fruitfulness, 
rich with the harvests of eternal life. Faith alone 
stamps the soul with immortality, and faith alone can 
make immortal the character and conduct of life. All 
else shall perish. Shakespeare will go out of print, 
and Homer shall be forgotten. He that sows to the 
flesh and dies with his dread crop on hand writes his 
epitaph upon his own tomb : "I had better never been 
born." God forbid that one of you should thus sow, 
to thus reap. And let me beg you, if you have al- 
ready begun thus to sow, stop your planting to-day. 
Erelong it may be too late to stop, and already you 



i82 SOWIIvrG AND REAPIIs^G WILD OATS. 

have sown enough in evil to terrify your soul could 
you only see the harvest you are to reap. Remember, 
before it is too late, the awful admonition: " Whatso- 
ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Sow to 
the Spirit. " Sow in the morn thy seed, and at eve 
withhold not thy hand; " and remember that though 
you go out sowing in tears, you shall return reaping 
Avith joy, if you sow to God. Sow early, and stop not 
to watch the clouds, nor to see whether this or that 
shall prosper. Put your hand to the plow, and stop 
not to look at the long row behind you till you take 
out your horse at the end of life's furrow. Then it 
will be sundown here below and sunrise hereafter, and 
there, upon the everlasting fields of glory and green- 
ness and beauty, you will luxuriate in the rich fruit- 
age, fructuating still of every seed you have sown to 
e-ood and to God. 





" m^. 



^MM^. 







PROFANITY. 

the cut which illustrates this subject you 
'h discover a facial delineation of the profane 
swearer. He looks something like a rav- 
ing madman, with every fierce passion in 
combined and collusive play upon his features. 
His eyes flash fire, and from his quivering and 
thundering lips the forked lightnings, in livid and 
lurid horror, play in every direction. A stream of 
green, red, and blue slaver flows from his mouth down 
upon his bosom below, like a Yesuvian gush of molt- 
en lava— hot, hissing, crackling and poisonous — 
indicative of that stream of depravity which belches 
from his heart, and which burns and hardens and in- 
crustates around it. I have stood and looked on just 
such a man full many a time, and sometimes I have 
thought some of them looked more like a slabbering 
mad-dog than a human madman. I saw a country- 
man one day, coming into town with an overburdened 
team which stalled in the mud. He began to beat 
and curse his mules; and finally, when intermingled 
beating and swearing would do no good, he threw 
down his cudgel, stood aside, and let loose a slabber- 
ing stream of profanity which no pen or pencil could 
paint for vicious and acrimonious blasphemy. He 
damned his mules, damned his luck and his fate, 

(185) 



186 PEOFAXITY, 



damned the world by sections; more than all, damned 
the road and the overseer that worked it; damned his 
own soul, and in the name of Almighty God he 
damned himself and all to an everlasting hell. After 
awhile his lurid and thunderous artillery of oaths sub- 
sided a little, and with occasional shots and salvos he 
proceeded to unload and reload his wagon, thus extri- 
cating his abused and exhausted team, after a full dis- 
play of moral insanity, and one of the most futile and 
useless efforts I ever beheld to move a team by the em- 
phasis of profanity. He drove away mad and mutter- 
ing still, not a whit wiser or better than he was before. 
Profane swearing, taking the name of God in vain, 
and in connection with the vilest and most denuncia- 
tory oaths or maledictions, is a stupendous and awful 
vice. What multitudes are guilty of it! It is uni- 
versal, and without exception of classes pervades the 
masses of mankind. Kespectable men, and women 
too — often members of Churches — are addicted to this 
execrable habit. Men called gentlemen, women called 
ladies, pollute their lips and defile their hearts with 
blasphemous profanity. Of all the sins against God, 
in some respects this is the most towering and direct- 
ly offensive, since the name of God is made the edge 
and the hilt and the point of this poisonous and acrid 
sword of the tongue. It is wonderful, often, that God 
does not strike down the blasphemer of his sacred 
name; and there are instances on record where the 
profane swearer, cursing all things and even his God, 
fell dead in his tracks upon the spot he blasted 
with his profanity. I knew an old farmer once, fear- 
fully addicted to this habit. Every thing went wrong 
with him; he was always ill, surly, and cross-grained. 
He would on the slightest occasion burst out with a 



PROFAIS'^ITY. 187 



Volume of oaths, and during dry or droughty weather 
he would go out and look at the clouds and curse 
and swear because it did not rain. One day he was 
passing through his field, and a storm which had prom- 
ised rain was blowing over. The old man stopped 
and set down the ax which he had on his shoulder, 
and began to swear. It was hard to tell which had 
the advantage in electric and flashing pyrotechnics, 
the old man or the thundering and lightening clouds. 
At all events, as the old fellow got through his ebulli- 
tion of blasphemous wrath, and put his ax upon his 
shoulder to start home, the steel attracted a bolt of 
lightning which struck the old man dead upon the 
spot. Many other instances of a similar character 
have been recorded, but we have not time and space 
for them here. All sin is rebellion against God, all 
sin is moral guilt under his law, all sin defiles the soul 
and tattooes the character; but no sin is so daringly 
blasphemous as that which, in conjunction Avith all 
other sins, accompanies Grod's holy name with the ful- 
minating imprecations and maledictions of profane 
swearing. 

Some people seem to live upon the very atmosphere 
of profanity. They appear to exhale and inhale it 
with relish and delight. They swear when they are mad 
and when they are glad and when they are sad, when 
they are satisfied and when they are disappointed, when 
they are fortunate and when they are unfortunate, when 
they are sick and when they are well, when blessed and 
distressed, in work or in play, in earnest and in fun, at 
home or abroad, on the land and on the sea — under all 
circumstances, and for a thousand difierent reasons; 
they swear all the time and all the same and just the 
same. There is a time to pray and a time to play — a 



188 PROrANITY. 



time for all things — but they have no set time to curse 
and swear. "With many, the habit becomes involun- 
tary, and I have heard men argue that they did not sin, 
and would not be held accountable, because they were 
not conscious of what they were doing. As well might 
the thief argue for his habit, and so with the drunkard 
and the adulterer. The responsibility lies in contract- 
ing the habit, and accountability will not be lessened 
by reason of unconscious or involuntary action. The 
quantity as well as the quality of the vice will be re- 
corded against every man who has become so debased 
and deadened by a habit that he has reached the point at 
last wherein he sins unconsciously and involuntarily. 
This is the last stage of depravity and degradation in 
any vice, and it is simply fearful that so many have 
reached it in profanity. Some swear in the presence 
of their families, before ladies and gentlemen^some- 
times before the minister protesting against this and 
every sin. They beg pardon sometimes, and yet swear 
before they get through with the apology. 

Strange to say, a man often persuades himself that 
he is a gentleman, a good citizen, a social and busi- 
ness exemplar, when at the same time he is a vulgar 
and profane swearer. I do not say that every man 
guilty of this sin is guilty of every other vice; but 
I do say that no man who swears can be a true gentle- 
man, a good citizen, or a model in the social and 
business world. If this is his only vice, he lacks that 
much of being a gentleman, and every virtue he pos- 
sesses is vitiated to that extent. He violates God's 
law in one point, and he is guilty of the whole, and 
his otherwise stainless robe of character has a big 
black spot on it which spoils the beauty of the whole 
garment. He sets a bad example to the youth around 



PROFANITY. 189 



him, he depreciates the dignity and honor due to a 
human being in the eyes of the upright, and the 
purer and loftier he may be in other respects the more 
hideous and horrible his habit looks in the light of his 
own contrast. A true gentleman regards the tender 
courtesies and the delicate sensibilities of refined so- 
ciety. A good citizen fosters the best moral interests 
of his community. An honest man will not cast re- 
flection or blight upon the ethical code or the relig- 
ious creed which maintains the supremacy of law 
and order, human or divine. To trample upon law 
and religion in one direction is to weaken their force 
in every direction, and the true gentleman cannot be 
a law-breaker and a religion-desecrator. Dr. Chapin 
well said: "Profaneness is a brutal vice. He who in- 
dulges it is no gentleman. I care not what his stamp 
may be in society. I care not what clothes he wears, 
or what culture he boasts. Despite all his refinement, 
the light and habitual taking of God's name in vain 
betrays a coarse nature and a brutal will." What may 
be said of the profane swearer as a " gentleman," and to 
the same extent, may be said of him as a citizen, a civil- 
ian, a business and professional man, or a man of so- 
ciety. 

It is not by any means certain that profanity does 
not lead to all other vices and crimes. The best of 
men, otherwise guilty of this sin, cannot be said to 
be true and perfect as a permanent certainty in all 
other respects. An ancient writer says: "From a 
common custom of swearing men may slide into per- 
jury; therefore, if thou wouldst not be perjured, do 
not use thyself to swear." Sam Jones says that " a 
man who swears will steal." I think this is a hard 
saying; but as all sins are akin to each other, and as 



190 PEOFAlSriTY. 



one sin breeds another, it is not unlikely that the pro- 
fane swearer is not only in danger of stealing, but of 
every other sin, God leaves the man guilty of such 
blasphemy open and subject to every other vice, so 
long as the subject of blasphemy persists in his sin. 
Thus left to ourselves, without the guidance of God, 
who can tell what such a sin will breed? Jeremy 
Taylor declares that "nothing is a greater sacrilege 
than to prostitute the great name of God to the petu- 
lancy of an idle tongue; " and if a man perists in such 
a sin against the name and the law of his God, who 
can tell what else it may lead a man, left to himself, 
to do in the end? One thing it is sure to do, and that 
is to put the profane swearer into bad company — com- 
pany congenial with himself — and bad company will 
be sure to lead, especially the young, into all other 
vices. 

It is agreed by all that profanity is the most useless 
and unprofitable of all the vices of men. " Most err- 
ing people," says Ballon, " when they do wrong count 
upon some good to be derived from their conduct, but 
for profanity there is no excuse.'''' Horace Mann wisely 
observed : " The devil tempts men through their am- 
bition, their cupidity, or their appetite, until he comes 
to the profane swearer, whom he catches without re- 
ward." In the language of Eobert Hall, " Swearing is 
properly a superfluity of naughtiness, and can only be 
considered as a sort of pepper-corn rent, in acknowl- 
edgment of the devil's right of superiority." Many 
men imagine that swearing adds emphasis to their 
expression. It may with the vulgar and profane; but 
with the refined and pure the prefix or the suffix of an 
oath depreciates and makes abhorrent an honest and 
honorable man's word. Such emphasis looks suspi- 



PROPAXITY. 191 



cious in the eyes of truth and virtue. Jesus did not 
swear, and he commanded us to " swear not at all," 
but to let our "yea be yea," and our "nay be nay." 
Peter, perhaps, persuaded the profane mob which cru- 
cified his Lord, that he did not know him by means of 
cursing and swearing; but his profanity on this occa- 
sion casts the blackest shadow which ever fell over 
his life and reputation. The best and mightiest men 
who ever spoke or wrote for the world did not swear, 
and the world receives their words with an emphasis 
which profanity would have forever destroyed. Truth 
and virtue, wisdom and philosophy, morality and re- 
ligion, honor and integrity, speak for themselves; and 
the simple word of an honest man is his oath and his 
bond. Think of a book or a newspaper or a letter in- 
terspersed with the emphasis ,of profane swearing! 
How would the President's message read full of curs- 
ing and swearing? Who would not loathe a public 
speaker whose eloquence and oratory sparkled and 
€orruscated with the electric glare of profane oaths? 
And yet how often does the chaste and polished speak- 
er leave the rostrum to curse and swear in conversa- 
tion! If profanity is good in one place, why not in ' 
another? It may be said that taste forbids profanity 
in writing and speaking for the public. True, but the 
very same reason makes it an odious, base, and brutal 
habit everywhere else. Of all the habits in the world 
it has no place for use or profit anywhere. 

What volumes does j^rofanity write for every day 
of the world's history ! Millions of pages go to press 
under the recording angel's pen every hour. This 
monstrous and multitudinous sin outstrips all other 
vices for quantity, if not for quality. Millions of 
tongues from every spot of earth perpetually spin 
13 



192 PROFANITY. 



out their sticky threads of profanity which, like a 
monster spider, winds and weaves its web around the 
world, and into which every thing good and bad is 
caught and impaled by his barbed fangs. "What a 
voluminous record does profanity set down against 
mankind every day! Yile, sacrilegious, blasphemous 
profanity! A man calls upon God to damn his neigh- 
bor and himself, to damn his wife and his children, 
to damn his houses and his lands, to damn his horses 
and his cattle, to damn his business and his profes- 
sion, to damn his misfortunes, aflBictions, and his 
troubles — all in malice and rage; and then, in fun 
and pleasantry, in the name of God, he curses his 
friends and his acquaintances, his pleasures and hap- 
piness, his prosperity and his advancements, his honor 
and his fame, every good thing he enjoys and hopes 
for. Some he damns to hell, some to misfortune and 
misery, some to one thing and some to another; and 
" hell and damnation," mixed up with the name of 
"Almighty God," are familiar words upon the lips of 
millions every day and hour. The profane swearer 
lives in the atmosphere of blue blazes and sulphuric 
stench and spectral darts and harsh noises and grating 
echoes, flashing, fuming, smoking, fulminating, and 
reverberating every moment through the existence and 
associations of some people. Some people begin and 
end almost every sentence, besides interspersing it, 
with oaths; and, conscious or unconscious, voluntary or 
involuntary, their every vital breath seems to be bur- 
dened with the profanation of God's name and barbed 
with the malediction of some object or victim. 

Young people, be sure that God will hold you to ac- 
count for this great and hideous sin. " Thou shalt not 
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." He will 



PROFA]SriTY. 193 



not hold him guiltless that takes his holy name in 
vain. Learn to abhor this vile and wicked habit. 
Loathe it as low, base, and obscene. Think of what 
Washington, the father of your country, said of it: 
" The foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing 
and swearing is a vice so mean and low that every 
person of sense and character detests and despises it." 
Learn, in the language of another writer : "There are 
braying men in the world as well as braying asses; 
for what is loud and senseless talking and swearing 
any other than braying?" Profanity is certainly an 
asinine as well as a vile and wicked habit, and no other 
ass, with loud as well as foul mouth, walks and brays 
the earth with greater stupidity than the victim of 
this vice. One of the greatest of asses is the cursing 
and the swearing ass, to say nothing of his depravity. 




THE SULKS. 

[^HE accompanying illustration to this sketch 
^^^ represents Achilles snlking- in his tent and 
'^ Ulysses protesting against his course of 
folly. The thought is taken rather from 
Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida than from 
Homer, and I gave the lectnre in order to get 
to elaborate one splendid passage from the great 
poet, which is never quoted at length. It is found in 
Scene III., Act III., and, well read and appropriated, 
it is worth millions of gold to a large part of this 
world. I want to quote it at length. Ulysses to 
Achilles : 

Time liath, my lord, a wallet at his back, 

Wherein he puts alms for oblivion, 

A great-sized monster of ingratitudes. 

Those scraps are good deeds past; which are devoured 

As fast as they are made, forgot as soon 

As done. Perseverance, dear nuj lord, 

Keeps honor bright: to have done is to hang 

Quite out of fashion, like a rustij mail 

In monumental mocJcery. Take the instant way; 

IFor honor travels in a strait so narrow, 

"Where one but goes abreast: keep then the path, 

!For emulation hath a thousand sons 

That one by one pursue: if you give way, 

Or edge aside from the direct forthright, 

Like to an entered tide, they all rush by, 

(194) 



THE SULKS. 197 



And leave you liindmost; 

Or, like a gallant horse fallen in first rank, 

Lie there for pavement to the abject rear, 

O'errun and trampled on. Then what they do injJresent, 

Though less than yours in 2J«sf, must o'ertop yours; 

For time is like a fashionable host, 

That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand. 

And with his arms outstretched, as he would fly. 

Grasps in the comer: loelcome ever smiles, 

And farewell goes out sighing. Let not virtue seek 

Remuneration for the thiiig it was; 

For beauty, wit. 

High birth, vigor of bone, desert in service, 

Love, friendship, charity, arc subjects all 

To envious and calumniating time. 

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. 

That all, with one consent, praise newborn gawds, 

Though they are made and molded of things past, 

And give to dust, that is little gilt. 

More laud than gilt o'erdusted. 

The 2)resent eye praises the present object: 

Then marvel not, thou great and complete man. 

That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax, 

Since things in motion sooner catch the eye 

Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee, 

And still it might, and yet it may again, 

If thou wouldst not entomb thyself alive 

And case thy rejmtation in thy tent, 

Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late. 

Made emulous missions 'mon^-^t the gods themselves. 

And drave great Mars to faction. 

If ever Shakespeare wrote a finer or more invalua- 
ble sentiment, or couched it in more potent or trench- 
ant terms, I have never read it. Achilles, it will be 
remembered, was the hero of the Trojan war on the 
Grecian side, and during the great contest of ten 
years Achilles was employed a part of the time in the 
reduction of the tributary cities of Asia Minor, be- 



198 THE SULKS. 



longing to the scepter of Priam, the king of Troy. 
In the destruction of the city of Tyrnessus the beau- 
tiful Bryseis became the prize of Achilles, and in the 
taking of Thebe Chryseis became the prize of Aga- 
memnon, the monarch of Greece and the commander 
of the Greek army around Troy. A pestilence short- 
ly appeared in the Greek camp, and Calchas, encour- 
aged by the proffered protection of Achilles, attrib- 
uted the plague to Agamemnon's detention of the 
daughter of Chryseis, whom her father tried in vain to 
ransom. Agamemnon was greatly offended, but was 
compelled to surrender his beautiful captive, and in 
retaliation upon Achilles he deprived him of Bryseis. 
Hence arose "the anger of the son of Peleus," or 
Achilles, who withdrew his forces from the Trojan 
contest. While he sulked in his tent no offers of rec- 
onciliation, no entreaties nor prayers could avail to 
get him back into service. Homer represents him as 
aroused at last by the death of his friend Patroclus, 
and Shakespeare, in his Troilus and Cressida, repre- 
sents him aroused by the argumentative persuasion of 
Ulysses and Patroclus, who charge him with love to 
Polyxena, Priam's daughter and Hector's sister, as 
the cause of unheroic inertia and indifference; and 
they stimulate him to warlike deeds again by way of 
emulation and envy of Ajax. Shakespeare did not 
write his play from the Iliad of Homer at all, but in a 
popular form from the popular story of Troilus and 
Cressida, written by Dares Phrygius. If any story 
of the sulking wrath of Achilles is true, it is that upon 
which the action of the Iliad is based and recorded by 
Homer; but the poet's representation of Achilles, in 
reply to Patroclus, after the exit of Ulysses, is superb 
and characteristic of our aroused hero: 



THE SULKS. 199 



I see, my reputation is at stake; 
My fame is shrewdly gored. 

Achilles went to battle again in full armor and with 
the full vigor of all his heroic force, and in the end he 
slew great Hector, although he did not survive his 
fallen enemy, it is said, but one day. ISTevertheless, 
he retrieved the threatened disaster of the "sulks," 
and he left his former fame and glory honor bright 
with a heroic termination of life. How many once 
heroic men have died dishonored and forgotten by sen- 
sitive offense with the world, sulking like Achilles in 
his tent, or else have run well and gloriously for awhile 
and fell, like the " stony-ground hearer," by tempta- 
tion; or, satisfied with past achievements or discour- 
aged by past sins and failures, have forgotten to 
forget, like Paul, the things behind them, to reach 
forth to the things before them, and to press for the 
prize ! 

Let me say right here that the silliest of all the fol- 
lies of fools is to sulk. I have done it myself, and if 
any man has less excuse for such a sin than another, 
it is the Christian. Some of us sulk even" with God, 
and if there was ever nothing to be made out of such 
nonsense with one being more than another, it is with 
God. How often I have heard the poor, sentimental 
egotist say: "Well, God doesn't seem to care any 
thing about me any way, and I had just as well give 
up. He blesses Jones and Smith, but he doesn't bless 
me, and I guess I will just take my chances." Did 
anybody ever hear the like? and yet this is the spirit 
of multitudes of people. I met a cripple once who 
said that he had lived a Christian for twenty years; 
but, said he: "I found it no use. My prayers were 
never answered, and while others were blessed and 



200 THE SULKS. 



prospered God seemed to neglect me. "What have I 
to thank God for? " he asked, and then he pointed to 
his being a cripple and to his j)overty and nnfortunate 
surroundings. I never was so astonished, for here I 
had found a man sulking with God, giving up the 
Christian struggle in life, risking a hell to be shunned 
and losing a heaven to be gained, all because God 
made a difference between him and other men. " The 
greater the cross the brighter the crown," said I to 
him, but all to no purpose. Like thousands, he was 
shut up to the narrow confines of his present exist- 
ence, comparing himself with others from the stand- 
point of transient time and things, and forgetting 
that " these light afflictions " here below " do but 
work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory " if endured and appropriated to the 
spiritual development of our souls. How often men 
forget that God's compensations for wants and afflic- 
tions here below make the condition of the unfortu- 
nate and the suffering the very stepping-stone to 
greatest honor and glory through faith and the cross! 
"What a difference between Dives and Lazarus! Our 
very tears are bottled jewels for eternity. Our very 
stripes for Christ are stigmas of glory. Our very 
chains are diamond bracelets and necklaces for celes- 
tial wear. Alas for the poor, " unprofitable servant," 
sulking over his one talent and hiding it in a napkin! 
Li vain will he come at last and say to his Lord: "I 
knew thee that thou wast a hard master." How use- 
less to sulk with God ! 

Then let me inquire. What does a man gain by 
sulking from any stand-point? Does he ever drive 
his fellow-man to appreciate him the more, and the 
more earnestly call for his talents and his services? 



THE SULKS, 201 



!N^ot once in a thousand, unless a man is of such mag- 
nificent proportions and of such invaluable importance 
that the world cannot get along- without him. An 
Achilles might sulk and yet be sued, but most men 
can learn their importance by sticking- a finger in 
the ocean and then pulling it out to find the hole it 
has made — an old saw, but it saws well. Generally 
the world soon forgets the sulker, and there are al- 
ways a dozen people to step in and take the place of 
ordinary, and of most of the extraordinary, men and 
women of the world. Besides this, the world has a 
supreme contempt for the sulker, for sulking is almost 
always the evidence of vanity or littleness, and a weak- 
ness of character, if not of intellect. It is the most 
babyish performance known to men, and the world 
generally treats such people as a parent treats a sulk- 
ing- child, either by thrashing him out of the sulks or 
by leaving him to sulk it out. Fortunately for a child, 
it can get over the sulks; but I have seen men and 
women, more foolish than babes, sulk away years and 
often a life-time of usefulness and honor. I have 
seen good old deacons and deaconessesj mothers and 
fathers in Israel, get mad and take a corner or a back 
pew; and the more the pastor or the brethren pleaded 
the sulkier grew the sulks. They waste their lives 
and injure their Churches and wound the cause of 
their Redeemer, and to gratify their petty pride and 
spite they sometimes go to their graves shrouded and 
clouded with their sulks. How will they appear be- 
fore their God in such a mood as this? God knows, 
and we may all judge that such Christianity is doubt- 
ful. Paul and Daniel and Joseph never sulked with 
all their great trials and afflictions, and with cheerful 
and forgiving spirits toward false brethren and a false 



202 THE SULKS. 



Avorlcl they stood 'up, fought a good fight, finished 
their course, kept the faith, glorified God, and did tlie 
world all the good they could. 

The sulking spirit is the result of inordinate vanity 
and egotism. Injured innocence and worth never de- 
ter great minds and hearts from life's stern duties and 
grand battles. Love, in exalted souls, never fails; and 
the heroic character despises wrong and pities the 
wrong-doer in opposition. Too many men feel that 
their little vanity is not appreciated as dignity, and I 
have seen the minister sulk and sit back at conven- 
tions or retire from the struggle of his calling and of 
his denomination because he felt he. was not appreci- 
ated. He does not appreciate himself, in the light of 
his Master and his vocation, or else there is nothing 
in him to appreciate. Who is he? and what is he? 
and Avhat is he here for? Are pride and ambition and 
vainglory and self-seeking and high position his mo- 
tive and inspiration? If so, he may expect to be 
thrown into the sulks, and he may expect to have to 
skulk before he gets through with his God and his 
brethren, or else with everlasting grit, without grace 
or sympathy, fight it out on his own and the devil's 
line. Jesus is our model. He never sulked nor 
" squealed " amid the trials of life or the ingrati- 
tudes of men or the cruel opposition of the devil; 
and he was characterized, in his supreme greatness 
and goodness, by the humility, meekness, and lowli- 
ness of the little child, which never sulks long. We 
are not here to please men or to please ourselves, and 
the sooner a man finds out that he is not here for him- 
self to live or die the sooner he will be cured of his 
petty vanity and egotism, the only principle which 
ever sulked. Even a laudable ambition and a true 



THE SULKS. 203 



pride, speaking after the manner of the world, will 
never sulk. The heroic spirit, the tough and gritty 
character, the brave and intrepid man, as a matter of 
policy and character among men, will not draw back 
and cease effort. 

In every case true manhood recognizes that the world 
admires the pluck that will not be discouraged and 
the cheek that will not blanch before dangers and 
difficulties. The world Avants a man that it can kick 
and cuif and slander for awhile, and who after all will 
get it by the throat and choke it into submission and 
drag it at his heels as Achilles dragged Hector around 
the walls of Troy. This world lias no use for the 
man it can run out of position and honor; but it al- 
ways admires the fellow who can pick himself up and 
put the world down. Yes, this world glories in get- 
ting a man down into a mud-hole, in walloAving him 
all over in filth and slime; but there is no man the 
world so admires as that same man who gets up and 
wallows the world in its own hole. This is strange, 
but it is human nature; and the preacher and the dea- 
con and the Church-member should at least learn a 
desirable portion of this trait in human nature. Did 
Blaine sulk after he was defeated for President? Did 
he get mad Avith his " mugwump " friends, and give up 
the ghost? JSTo, he went to work to see if he could 
not run again; and when he found it was not best, he 
ran in another man — the next best thing. He will run 
again yet if there is a chance; and so, with a persist- 
ent aim and object in life, every man must push on 
against the world, the flesh, and the devil, to success. 

Yes, my friend, you can stop and sit back and hide 
in your shell, shut up like a sensitive plant, and think 
you spite somebody, but you only cut off your nose 



204 THE SULKS. 



to spite your own face. Yon may congratulate your- 
self that you are one of the " has beens," but nothing 
so runs out of fashion as " to have been," as Shakes- 
peare says. Your greatest regret in the end will be, 
" I might have been," for no man can die satisfied and 
be held in gratitude by his fellows who falls short of 
life's full complement of duty and honor. He must 
finish his course. The world will not forgive him if 
he fails; and to make the port he must plow across the 
billows against the splash of every breaker and against 
the buffet of every storm. He must make no compro- 
mise, like a sailing-vessel tacking with every wind; 
much less must he set his sails with every breeze, l^o 
man can reach the successful ends of his life, great or 
small, by compromise — to say nothing of surrender — 
in the face of difficulty or danger. It is bad enough 
to fail from cowardice or timidity, shrinking before 
opposition and responsibility; but the greatest and 
most contemptible failure of all is the man who sulks 
his life and his opportunities away because his fellow- 
man offends him or fails to appreciate him. 





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if ■:':'■ r'l'ili I'll ifii: .:!■,! 

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SiJJ 



THE DEVIL'S SIFTER. 




Jesus said to Peter, before tne betrayal and 

the crucifixion : " Simon, Simon, behold, 

Satan hath desired to have you, that he 

may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed 

thee, that thy faith fail not : and when thou 

art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Satan 
did get hold of Peter, and he sifted him well, causing 
him to curse and to swear and to deny his Lord and 
Master. He nearly scared Peter's life out of him, 
and under the overwhehning temptation he fell a vic- 
tim to the sin of cowardice and denial. One glance 
of his Lord, however, the admonishing crow of the 
cock, brought Peter to his senses and to the deepest 
repentance, and the strong and stalwart Galilean went 
out into the dark and wept. His faith had not failed 
him, though for the moment overslaughed; for when- 
ever Jesus prays for the protection and preservation 
of our faith it can never " fail." The sifting process 
was good for Peter and good for the world, for, thus 
turned about and converted from his error, he became 
a tower of strength to his brethren. His presumption 
and self-dependence were thoroughly cured, and, 
though sometimes erring again in other directions, he 
became the great apostolic leader. He went " a-fish- 
ing" once, but he said, in the humility of his heart: 
14 r207:) 



208 THE devil's sifter. 

" Lord, thou knowest I love thee." He " dissembled " 
at Antioch, but Paul rebuked him for his fault. 
Henceforth we hear of Peter, as before this little epi- 
sode, standing up mightily for Christ; and he went 
down to the grave a martyr, crucified with his head 
downward, for the gospel's sake. How often Satan 
sifted him we do not know, but his denial of Christ is 
recorded as perhaps the bitterest ordeal of the sifting . 
process through which he ever passed — almost, ap- 
parently, going all to chaff. . 

From this illustration we learn that God sometimes 
makes the devil his sifter, as we see in our picture. 
He sifted Peter by temptation to fear and cowardice, 
and he sifted Job by the severest of human misfort- 
unes and afflictions. God turned his servant Job — 
a man " perfect " in his sight, one that eschewed evil 
and feared God — it would seem, entirely over to the 
devil. Satan killed his children, burned up his prop- 
erty, destroyed his cattle, and robbed him of what he 
had; and when all this failed to shake his integrity, 
God allov\^ed the diabolical fiend to touch his body 
and torture him with carbuncles from the soles of his 
feet to the crown of his head. For weary months, and 
perhaps years, he was a sufferer; and under the so- 
called consolation of his so-called friends insult was 
added to the devil's injury. His wife conspired to 
help the old adversary out; and about all that Satan 
and Sallie and Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar could 
do was to get Job to swear a little at himself and his 
fate. So far as God was concerned, he exclaimed, 
"The- Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; 
blessed be the name of the Lord; " and when the worst 
came to the worst he said to his friends : " Though he 
slay me, yet will I trust in him." About all I can 



THE devil's sifter. 209 

get from Job's conversation with God and his friends 
is that he was self-righteous even in his " trust," and 
I suppose that God intended to let the devil sift him 
out of that. When he came to himself and saw him- 
self as God saw him, then he justified God instead of 
himself. He got to where he could abhor himself in 
dust and ashes, and then his captivity was released. 
The chaif was all gone, and the wheat was clean, and 
the devil never got such a thrashing as he did at the 
hands of Job, whom he tried to sift into hell itself. 

If Satan met his match in Job, he met it also in 
Paul; for it seemed as if God let him sift Paul most 
of his life. He had a "thorn in the flesh," the "mes- 
senger of Satan," to "buffet him;" and how much 
trouble it gave Paul we shall never know until we see 
him in heaven. Besides all this, the devil stirred up 
more war and opposition, put more demons in human 
shape to Imrt and destroy Paul than ever fell to the 
lot of any other man. We can scarcely conceive why 
Paul suffered so much of ill and persecution, but we 
know one thing: God never had a hero who could 
stand it more like a man. Another thing we know, 
too, and that is the devil sifted as little chaff out of 
his wheat as ever fell through his sieve. His " thorn 
in the flesh," whatever it was, was given to keep him 
humble, lest he " should be exalted above measure." 
He had been up into the third heaven, whether in the 
body or out of it he did not know. He had seen and 
heard things which he could not utter. There was 
danger, perhaps, that he would feel his distinction too 
greatly. Paul was human, and he was put into the 
sifter's hands in order to keep the chaff from his wheat, 
not to get it out. So we see that God tries us often 
to test us and keep us pure; as often he puts us into 



210 THE devil's sifter. 

the fire to burn up the chaff or purge out the dross 
from the pure gold. Whom the Lord loves he chas- 
tens. He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 
More than this, he sometimes lets Satan sift us in or- 
der to keep from having to chastise us. So he did 
Paul, and so perhaps he did such men as Joseph, Dan- 
iel, and the Hebrew children. 

The devil's sifter is employed as discipline upon re- 
fractory Christians. The " incestuous man," accord- 
ing to 1 Corinthians v. 5, was delivered by the Church, 
obedient to Paul's inspired instructions, unto Sa- 
tan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit 
might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. We 
find, subsequently, that Paul advised — we infer so, at 
least — that the Church restore this man lest he be de- 
stroyed with " overmuch sorrow." He had been 
turned over to Satan to buffet and beat him about like 
a stray sheep in the woods, and, like the true sheep 
would naturally do, he bleated with repentance and 
cried for restoration to the fold. He was a Christian 
who had done wickedly, and God, in order to correct 
his child, had put him into the devil's sifter, as he had 
done Peter and Paul and Job for-other reasons. Disci- 
pline is absolutely essential to children by the parents, 
and good parents, like God, or God, like good parents, 
always inflict it when necessary. So the Churches 
are commanded to do in the name of Jesus, and when 
a refractory member cannot be restored without dis- 
cipline he is to be turned out and turned over to Satan 
for the destruction of the flesh, in order to the salva- 
tion of his spirit. If the refractory member is a 
sheep, and not a goat, he will be sorry for sin, and re- 
turn with repentance; if, however, he is a goat, he 
will be likely to stay and never return, except for 



THE devil's sifter. 211 

mischief. Thousands of our Churches have no disci- 
pline. They are full of black sheep, and goats as well, 
and hence to-day much of the loss of our Christian 
influence over the world. We are often despised by 
the wicked for our lack of discipline and for our want 
of moral character in the Churches. Paul says turn 
over the bad member to Satan. Let him destroy his 
flesh. Be sure God will temper the wind to his shorn 
lamb or sheep, and in due time he will be brought to 
repentance and restoration. Discipline never destroys 
any thing but the '■'■jlesli " of the true sheep in God's 
fold. 

Such men as Jacob, Samson, Saul, David, Solomon, 
and others, were thoroughly sifted. Samson was not 
perfectly purged of his chafi" until his eyes were put 
out and he was ground to poAvder, grinding in the 
mills of the Philistines; but he came out all clear and 
bright as newly washed wheat in the end. He " died 
in the faith " and went home to God sanctified from 
his sins and innumerable follies. So Solomon did, if 
he wrote Ecclesiastes in his old age — the evidence of 
his chastening at God's hands and the acknowledg- 
ment that his life had been turned to vanity and vex- 
ation of sj)irit. It was evident that Saul from the 
beginning was a bad man, always in opposition and 
rebellion to God; and though God's Spirit often came 
" upon" him to prophesy, to government, and to bat- 
tle, yet his Spirit never seemed to dwell within him. 
He simply went through the devil's sifter instead of 
losing the chafi'. He was not pure gold. He went 
all to dross, as baser metal always does in the fire. 
Jacob went down to the grave in sorrow, and so must 
David have done, the sins of their lives having been 
visited in kind upon their own heads and houses; but 



212 THE devil's sifter. 

they were sifted through sorrow and repentance, and 
sanctified from their sins in the end. Judas, like 
Saul, went through the sifter, trash and all, when once 
Satan had fully entered into him to betray his Lord 
and Master; and so of the Demases, the Alexanders, 
the Simon Maguses, the Diotrepheses, and a host of 
others who professed Christ and followed the world, 
making " shipwreck of their faith." They believed 
and drew back, not believing to the saving of the 
soul, and they went through the devil's sifter in dem- 
onstration that a faith without work, a faith without 
vital evidence of eternal life, cannot be tried in the 
fire like gold. God's true Church is like the burning 
bush — ever burning, but not consumed. The chafi", 
however, will go through the sifter, or get burned up, 
wherever it exists in the whole or in a part of the 
Christian professor. 

From all this we learn that God joerhaps puts us all 
in the sifter. 'No true child of God but has been tried 
by the devil. Satan tempted Christ, came to him in 
the beginning and in the end of his ministry, but he 
found "nothing" in him. If he tried the Master, he 
will try every servant, as the Master himself tells us; 
and in this sifting process it is demonstrated who is 
the true and the false professor, which is the true and 
the counterfeit gold. "We are tried either by tempta- 
tion, afiiiction, doubt, or fear; and in either process 
of refining our gold and silver we are made manifest 
and proved as genuine. The heresies and false relig- 
ions around us are all for the purpose of demonstrat- 
ing the true and the false believer. They are the 
scavengers of the spiritual and orthodox Churches, 
and those who go out from them are not of them. 
These heretical sifters of the devil, as well as his moral 



THE devil's sifter. 213 

sifters, are separating the chaff from the wheat, the 
goats from the sheep every day; and while we com- 
j)lain of them and combat them, Jesus tells us that 
these heresies are ordained of God, that offenses must 
come in spite of the condemnation of those who orig- 
inate them, " that they which are approved may be 
made manifest." So of the theater, the dance-hall, 
the card-table, the bar-room, the brothel, the gambling- 
hell, politics, bad business, and evil associations. 
These are all the sifters put into the hands of the 
devil, who in this respect is God's agent, and who 
can go no farther than God will let him. Infidelity, 
Ingersollism, is another mighty sifter which Satan 
wields with great effect, and so of spiritualism. Thou- 
sands of Christians and false professors fall alike into 
all these temptations of vice and skepticism; and 
through this sifting process the true and the false are 
separated, the chaff is taken from the true, and the 
true are ultimately sanctified and saved. Some come 
out of the sifter brighter and purer than ever, and 
thousands go through, chaff and all, as you see in my 
pictorial illustration. In some way or other we all 
get sifted, and if we make a profession of Christ, true 
or false, God has ordained the sifting process to show 
beyond a doubt where we belong. Don't think it 
strange, therefore, as Peter tells us, if fiery trials try 
you. Faith is like gold — all the more precious by 
trial. Its trial is "more precious," he tells us, "than 
gold tried in the fire; " and the only faith of value for 
time or eternity is a tried faith, or one that can stand 
the devil's fiery sifter. Let us give the devil his due. 
He does the true Christian good. He does not intend 
to, but under God's overruling providence and grace 
he is made a purifier and a friend. 



214 THE devil's sifter. 

The devil is like a mule tethered in an oat-patch. 
He cannot go beyond his cable-tow. He is limited by 
the strong arm of God, and to the extent of overruling 
all evil for good to his peo^^le Grod allows the devil to 
go just so far and no farther. "All things work togeth- 
er for good to them that love God, to them who are 
the called according to his purpose." Satan could de- 
stroy Job's property, kill his children, and torture his 
body, but he could not touch his soul to destroy it. 
^Nothing and nobody can hurt a man but himself, and 
"with every tempation God has provided a way of es- 
cape. To the righteous man it is good to be afflicted, 
and to such a man even sin and temptation may be 
made to turn out for his ultimate and everlasting good, 
through sifting and chastening. Every fall to true 
Christian manhood and womanhood is a fall upward 
and with the face toward the cross. Bitter experi- 
ence appropriated has been the stepping-stone to 
honor and success in every great calling of life; and 
the fact is no less true and applicable to the Chris- 
tian's high vocation. We shall all have some scars of 
battle upon us in eternity. Christ has the scars of 
glory upon him, and though we may have been wound- 
ed and broken in the devil's sifter the scars will not 
be inglorious to the man who has risen to greater use- 
fulness and honor by them. 






Ll ;«& ^ riOf^l^ 



-^i^ (9(9 "^(^g®^ 



HARD-SHELLS. 




-><i»C-i 



(OCOMPA:N'YI:N'G this sketch are two illus- 
trations which need explanation. The first 
picture, facing this page, represents a 
preacher before a peculiar and characteristic 
idienCe — an audience of turtles seated upon 
W logs in a pond of water, with an alligator lying 
off to one side. The preacher's text, as seen upon 
the side of the platform upon which he stands, is: 
"jBy grace ye are saved; " and the audience, as you will 
observe, is deeply intent, heads up, and listening ear- 
nestly to the preacher. The alligator, with mouth 
open, and perhaps suffused with crocodile tears, is 
specially the hypocrite of the congregation. The doc- 
trine of salvation by grace is profoundly interesting 
to the elect, and the "Hard- shell" preacher, as he is 
called, seldom dwells upon any other theme except 
election and predestination or kindred subjects, so far 
as my observation has gone. It is justification by 
faith, "without works," but without the justifying- 
evidence of works. Paul is always referred to, but 
James is ignored; and hence going and giving, living 
and doing for God's glory and the salvation of a per- 
ishing world do not belong to the " Hard-shell's " creed. 
In the second picture the scene is the same and the 
audience is the same, as you perceive, but another 

(217) 



218 HARD-SHELLS. 



preacher occupies the platform and appeals to the 
crusty congregation. He is not necessarily a soft- 
shell in some respects, but he is a missionary; and, as 
you will see, upon the side of his platform he has 
a different text : " Give, and it shall be given you.'''' Upon 
the announcement of his text and theme the scene 
changes, " dissolves like the baseless fabric of a vis- 
ion, and leaves not a rack behind." It is now tails up 
instead of heads up. The turtles pull in their heads 
and then plunge downward from the logs into the 
water, and nothing is left in sight of that weeping al- 
ligator but his last extremity. The preacher stands 
aghast and in chagrin, and he cries aloud in vain. All 
his preaching, all his array of Scripture, all his force 
of logic is- futile. With such a change of preacher 
and subject comes a collapse of enthusiasm with this 
audience, and it is as if a wet blanket had been flung 
over their ardor. 

Salvation by grace was extreme unction from on 
high to the elect, but the doctrine of the ''almighty 
dollar " and of " eff'ort " proves death to emotion and 
tears, no matter how clear the Scriptures, how cogent 
the argument, or how eloquent the oratory. The 
"Hard-shell" turns a deaf ear to every citation from 
the word of God on this point, or else he turns to rend 
you with controversy by which he spiritualizes away 
every passage of divine truth which involves giving, 
going, or doing for the redemption of the world and 
for the extension of the Master's kingdom. In the 
end, if not before, he takes water, as you see the tur- 
tles in the second picture; and, strange to say, he gen- 
erally, though not always, belongs to what is called 
the " water family," the Baptists (and the writer, be- 
ing of that family, claims the right to say what he 



HARD-SHELLS. 



221 



pleases upon this subject). You find but few profess- 
edly anti-missionaries among other denominations. 

It may not be amiss here to explain what we mean 
by the term " hard-shelV There is a sect of our breth- 
ren called " Hard-shells ; " but it is not my purpose sim- 
ply to attack them, and if I allude to them, it is only 
by way of illustration, in order to reach the hard- 
shell anti-missionary and anti-effort pretender in mis- 
sionary ranks. The old-fashioned Primitive Baptists, 
as they call themselves, are professedly opposed to Mis- 
sions, to an educated ministry, to a salaried pastorate, 
to Sunday-schools, and to all effort for the salvation 
of the sinner or the heathen by direct agencies estab- 
lished for the purpose. They regard missionary and 
educational boards, missionary appointments, conven- 
tional institutions for the purpose of evangelizing and 
educating the world as anti-scriptural; hence, in the 
sense in which we foster Missions and education, they 
stand opposed to what they call " man-made inven- 
tions and methods." They hold that if God wants a 
missionary in Africa or China, he will move him to go, 
and provide the means for his going and for his opera- 
tions; and believing, many of them, that the Holy 
Spirit, without the use of means, will lead the elect 
to faith and salvation, they naturally hold that all 
missionary, educational, and Sunday-school effort for 
the salvation of sinners is not only anti-scriptural, but 
useless and God-dishonoring. 

However erroneous we regard their theory or their 
creed, they are among the most honest people in the 
world. They would come nearer, perhaps, suffer- 
ing martyrdom for Christ than any other denomina- 
tion I know. I have known them to walk forty miles 
to be at one of their Associations, and they are much 



222 HARD-SHELLS. 



devoted to their Churches, and kind and hospitable 
to one another in brotherly love. I never knew but 
one of them to take advantage of the homestead or 
bankrupt laws, and he was excluded from the Church. 
Formerly, a letter of dismission from an old-school 
Baptist Church was a letter of credit to a dry goods 
or grocery merchant; and the payment of an honest 
debt, or the dealing out of exact justice to his fellow- 
man, was the pride of a " Hard-shell." They are 
hard in doctrine, fatalistic in theology; they believe 
more in " feeding the sheep " than in converting the 
goats; they do not believe in the use of means and 
measures for the extension of the gospel to a perish- 
ing world; they believe that God does not need to be 
helped, and that " whatever is to be will be," as some 
facetiously say, " whether it comes to pass or not; " 
but one thing is certain, you always know where to 
find an " old-side " Baptist, and he wouldn't deceive 
you to save your life, if he is as he used to be. 

The old-school brethren have their faults, as I have 
already intimated; and they have, as I think, their 
grievous errors; but they are rigidly and openly hon- 
est. Many of their preachers dote on their ignorance, 
and seem to think God holds their illiteracy at a pre- 
mium. I have heard some of them preach some of 
the most ridiculous sermons in the most ludicrous 
manner, and yet attribute what they said and did to 
the operation of the Holy Spirit. One is said to have 
represented himself as having a funnel, ordinarily in 
the top of his head, into which the Spirit j)oured the 
words he should utter; and on one occasion, when he 
"got into the brush," he said God had turned the fun- 
nel wrong end up! In East Tennessee, as a promi- 
nent minister present told me, an old Primitive broth- 



HARD-SHELLS. 223 



er so understood Genesis xxii. 23 as to read : "And 
these eight did milk a bear " (these eight did Milcah 
bear to J^ahor, etc.) ; and he prefaced his discourse 
by saying: " In tliese days one girl can milk a dozen 
cows, but in those days it took eight men to milk a 
bear, and they didn't get much milk, I suppose, at 
that." Another interpreted the expression of David, 
in which he said that God had set his feet like " hinds' 
feet" upon high places, as hen's feet, to prove the im- 
possibility of falling from grace, the hen having a toe 
behind her foot by which she is kept from sliding 
backward when she walks uphill. So I might multi- 
ply instances of bad reading, false interpretation, and 
spiritualizations the most ludicrous, but I forbear. 

The many burlesque sermons which we read as com- 
ing from our old brethren — "And they played upon 
a harp of a thousand strings, spirits of just men made 
perfect," "And they shall gnaw a file, flee to the 
mountains of Hepsidam, where the lion roareth and 
the whangdoodle mourneth for her first-born," "And 
there were nine more standing at the door who took 
sugar in theirn " — all such are fictions; but they orig- 
inate in the style and manner of much " Hard-shell " 
preaching, and express the sense of the ludicrous 
which it inspires. I wish to say, however, that there 
are many honorable exceptions to the rule of practice 
and preaching as cited in many places. In some of 
our cities — notably in Nashville — where I have had 
the most delightful intercourse with some of our Prim- 
itive brethren, I have discovered intelligence and 
progress far in advance of the general status of the 
denomination; and I only regret that a people of such 
evangelical simplicity. Of such sturdy faith and disci- 
pline, of such doctrinal integrity and orthodoxy, of 
15 



224: HARD-SHELLS. 



such a martyr spirit and purpose, should dwindle in 
numbers and power every day for the want of a mis- 
sionary and progressive spirit. "What a power they 
might have been in the world, planted upon the great 
commission of Christ, "6^0 ye into all the world, and 
f reach the gospel to every creature!''^ I speak this senti- 
ment from my heart in all kindness and love, and I 
can assure my Primitive brethren that if any thing I 
could say or do would contribute to their evangel- 
ical advancement, I would lay any sacrifice I could 
offer at their feet. Perhaps they will consider me 
presumptuous and my offering gratuitous; but, what- 
ever they may think, I am their loving and obedient 
servant. 

But I am not after the " Hard-shell " of the Primi- 
tive school, as I said before, except by way of illus- 
tration. I am after the hard-shell of some of our 
modern schools. I have respect for the old-fashioned 
" Hard - shell " who hitches onto the rear of your 
cart and pulls the other way, but I detest the balky 
hard-shell in your own team. You can cut the hard- 
shell loose in your rear, but it is hard to manage the 
lazy or the obstreperous fellow in front of you. He 
is one of you, and he it is in all of our Churches who 
does us the most harm. He won't give, nor will he 
do any thing for Christ and his Church; and often he 
is sitting down upon the stool of do-nothing, congrat- 
ulating himself upon being saved by grace. He is 
going to heaven upon a Pullman sleeping-car, at rest 
in his berth, rolling on wheels, with his lug-gage of sin 
and indifference checked through; and he is perfectly 
content to let his brethren bear all the burdens and 
all the expenses of the business, in the profits of which 
he hopes to participate. 



HARD-SHELLS. 225 



He never takes a religious newspaper, that he may 
keep abreast with the progress of the Christian world; 
and this kind of a hard-shell, while he boasts much 
of the Bible and of having all the truth, never reads 
or studies it. He is opposed to boards, theological 
seminaries, Sunday-schools, and what-not of effort and 
enterprise, and he does not even give to the support 
of his own pastor. If you will preach faith without 
works, salvation by grace without evidences, his head 
is up; but a missionary or educational sermon will 
put his head into his shell every time. He will take 
water, too, without an arg'ument, and it is like strik- 
ing a feather-bed Avith your fist — there is no i-ebound; 
he will not even answer you nor fight you back. He 
is a hard-shell, and he is a moss-backed one at that, 
willfully ignorant and self-determined not to give and 
never to do any thing except to go occasionally to 
Church. He lives mostly in country places, but not 
unfrequently in the city. He may be a Baptist, a 
Methodist, or a Presbyterian — I have seen them every- 
where. 

One great difficulty in the way of many of our 
Church-members on this point is ignorance, and one 
reason for this state of things is the want of pastors 
in many places who will enlighten the people practi- 
cally and push the enterprises of religion. I know 
some pastoral ignoramuses who would be willing to 
preach for nothing to enjoy the distinction, or else to 
live upon a pittance to have the privilege; and of 
course such a preacher would never develop the lib- 
erality and the energies of his Church. There are not 
a few Churches, too, that would like to have just such 
a pastor, and there are more members in most of the 
Churches than we think who are of just such a caliber 



226 HARD-SHELLS. 



and sentiment. There are some pastors who prefer 
not to press the missionary and educational enter- 
prises of their denomination for fear that their own 
pockets will suffer; and, while they promise big things 
at the Association or the Convention, they go home 
to resume their habit of doing nothing. All this is 
old hard-shellism, anti-effort, anti-missionary, anti-ed- 
ucation, and much of it results from pastoral igno- 
rance or inefficiency. 

Like people like priest, and, vice versa, like priest 
like people. Hard-shellism is an antichristian lie, and 
it is the only form of antichrist which seems des- 
tined to die in an age like this. God nor the devil 
has any respect for it, for it will not give nor work, 
and neither God nor Satan has the patience to deal 
long with stinginess and laziness. Hard-shellism — 
religiously, socially, politically, commercially, or oth- 
erwise — would never have developed a world, an idea, 
an age, or a country. It is the boast of "masterly 
inactivity," the sin of negation and inertia, the hy- 
pocrisy in those who profess to be progressive, of im- 
pecunious lassitude — the end of which is an everlast- 
ting " innoccuous desuetude." It is fatalism or the 
presumption of negation and inertia which makes 
hard-shellism, and the sooner it dies, or we who have 
it die, the better for the world. So mote it be, if God 
will. 







5^.. 




.■■.;5.^/ ■ 




_a_SBsa,A 




JEALOUSY; 

OR, 
THE BIG AND LITTLE FELLOW. 

•«"4^- 

m 

JACIIS'G this sketch is the picture of an ass 
kicking at a lion. The lion is the majes- 
'^ tic symbol of manhood; the ass, of pusil- 
^ lanimous littleness and stupidity, of small 
^ ability with big aspirations, jealous and envious 
'-"^ of the lion's dignity and reputation. The little 
fellow, unable to cope with the big one, and immeas- 
urably below him in character and achievement, brays 
and kicks at him ; while the big fellow is scarcely con- 
scious of the little fellow's existence, and pays no at- 
tention whatever to his voice or his heels. His bray- 
ing and his kicking are neither heard nor felt, and the 
more the ass brays and kicks the bigger and more 
prominent becomes the lion. Sometimes, of course, 
indifference and patience cease to be virtues. The 
little kicker ventures too close, and occasionally the 
lion has to make mince-meat of him. The bull-dog 
or the great mastiff ordinarily pays no attention to 
the barking fice; but sometimes the little fellow, em- 
boldened by the big dog-'s indifference, will venture 
not only to snap, but to bite, and the big one annihi- 
lates him. ^J^ot often and not otherwise; and we are 

(229) 



230 JEALOUSY. 



thus frequently struck with the dignity of the hirger 
brute as we notice his majestic unconcern or indiffer- 
ence when annoyed or attacked by smaller beasts. 

In the picture before us, however, we have chosen 
the ass for an illustration of the little fellow. The 
character of the small man, jealous or envious of the 
great one, is pre-eminently asinine, rather than ca- 
nine. It is the ass, as we call him, who manifests 
such a spirit and exposes such stupidity, ^sop, in 
one of his fables, shows the ass in the lion's skin, cre- 
ating consternation among the other beasts until his 
ears popped out, when the terror subsided. It is the 
asB only that will pose as a lion so long as he can con- 
ceal his ears and suppress his voice, and it is the ass 
only that will bray and kick at the lion when his voice 
and his ears cannot be hid. 

Shenstone has well defined jealousy as the "fear or 
apprehension of superiority ; " and envy, "our uneasi- 
ness under it." It is the cancer in every man's breast, 
never wholly cut out, and only mastered by great 
minds. We all have more or less of this passion, 
which is an angel when it guards the truth of God 
and the honor of man, but when it turns the soul 
against itself and against its neighbor it becomes 
what the great poet familiarly calls it — 

The green-eyed monster which doth mock 

The meat it feeds on. 
It is said to be born of love; but, while love rarely 
exists without jealousy, it is true that jealousy often 
exists without love — cold, heartless, cruel as the 
grave. As Colton says, "Jealousy can feed on that 
which is bitter, no less than on that which is sweet, 
and it is sustained by pride as often as by affection," 
Suspicion and apprehension are its deepest and com- 



JEALOUSY. 231 



monest source. The suspected fidelity or the shared 
friendship of others on the one hand, and the interpo- 
sition of another's superiority or excellence on the 
other, constitute the bane of a million bitter, burning 
lives; and jealousy and envy are the poisoned and 
acrid food upon which they feed. To be suspicious 
of those we love, to dread the overshadoAving great- 
ness of thos5 we hate, to realize our own depreciation 
and inferiority — all this made a beautiful writer ex- 
claim : 

O Jealousy, 
Thou uglie&t fiend of hell ! thy deadly venom 
Preys on my vitals, turns the healthful hue 
Of my fresh cheek to haggard sallowness, 
And drinks my spirit up. 

This passion, perverted, " ever lives upon doubts," 
as Rochefoucauld says, " and it becomes madness, or 
ceases entirely, with certainty." 

Trifles light as air 
Are to the jealous confirmations strong 
As proofs of holy writ. 

The slightest apprehension felt, the faintest doubt 
or fear, fills the soul by jealousy wrought in little 
minds with every torture of a self-made hell. In 
fact, in the bad sense, jealousy and envy are the prod- 
uct of small minds; and when unsubordinated and 
displayed they become the characteristic of supreme 
asinin-ity. In the good sense, these passions are the 
safeguards of the pure and lofty soul; and they are the 
bulwarks of virtue and honor, truth and righteousness. 

The Bible says : " Jealousy is cruel as the grave : the 
coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most ve- 
hement flame." One of the conditions upon which 
Pilate wanted to release Jesus was because he " knew 



232 JEALOUSY. 



that for envy " the Jews wanted to crucify him. The 
majestic innocence of Jesus, the unanswerable logic 
of his wisdom and righteousness, the towering grand- 
eur of his character, his mighty works and achieve- 
ments, his vast popularity with the people, made the 
Pharisaic asses kick as high as heaven. Christ stood 
an awful rebuke to pride and hypocrisy, an ominous 
menace to vaulting ambition, greed for gain, and love 
of place before men. The scribes and Pharisees hated 
Jesus worse than the devil; and with their blinding- 
prejudice and maddening envy they transformed the 
Son of God, the incarnation of innocence and deity, 
into Beelzebub. The cross is still a " stumbling-block " 
to pride and ambition, still " foolishness " to " science," 
falsely so called; and under the same circumstances 
jealousy and envy would crucify Christ again. The 
proud and prejudiced asses still kick and bray against 
being crucified .to the world, or having the world cru- 
cified to them. 

Purity and superiority are the shining marks against 
which jealousy has ever shot her fiery shafts; and even 
high positions of wealth and honor have shared the 
same fate. The tongue of scandal and slander is the 
barbed arrow of jealousy when brains and character 
are in the way; and the torch and the fagot have often 
been applied when the splendor of stone fronts and 
fine arts have confronted the green-eyed envy of an- 
archy and mobocracy. Churchill beautifully said: 

Among the sons of men how few are known 
Who dare be just to merit not their own! 
Superior virtue and superior sense 
To knaves anH fools will always give offense ; 
Nay, men of real worth can scarely bear, 
So nice is jealousy, a rival there. 



JEALOUSY. 



233 



If jealousy, as Milton terms it, is the " injured lover's 
hell," nor ever "understood" until Paradise fell, how 
much more must it be a torment to the sense of inferi- 
ority and disparagement in the view of small minds, 
ever looking lynx-eyed and green-eyed upon the su- 
periority and prosperity of those above them! As 
already intimated, this otherwise painful passion has 
a just and rational place in the heart when it aims at 
the preservation of good in ourselves, the honor of 
truth and virtue, the glory of God and religion; but 
when it overestimates itself and underestimates oth- 
ers, when Grod and religion, truth and righteousness, 
virtue and honor are overshadowed in the form of 
pride and selfishness, then jealousy shifts upon the 
uneasy bed of envy; and, in the language of an emi- 
nent writer, when it is so turned it becomes " a frenzy 
that cannot endure, even in idea, the good of others," 
much less the success and exaltation of others. This 
is little kicking asininity. 

We have but to look around us every day to find 
illustrations of what we ha^•e said upon this subject, 
the little fellow kicking the big, the perpetual con- 
summation of jealousy in some form or another. The 
greatest and best men of any countr}^, especially 
when they have attempted great and good things, 
have been the shining marks of envy, and have been 
tattooed all over with the brush of jealousy. Though 
dead, some of them, this ghoul of the malicious heart 
has dug up their bones from the grave and daubed 
them around with rings of blackness. During one of 
the late presidential campaigns the little politicians 
who were slandering the candidates for the highest of- 
fice in this country went to the grave of Washington 
and exhumed the " Father of His Country " and soiled 



234 JEALOUSY. 



the ashes in which his glory Lay buried. Of course 
partisan zeal and prejudice have much to do with that 
vile malignity which drags down personal honor and 
dignity in political contests; but the best man in the 
United States, the mightiest genius, has but to be 
presented for position or office, and the little asses all 
over the continent begin to let fly their heels. They 
go to hunting for the " record " immediately ; and if the 
man ever made a mistake, if he ever soiled his char- 
acter, even in youth; if his great-grandfather ever did 
any thing wrong, however slight the sin, the micro- 
scope of jealousy and prejudice is put upon it, and it 
will come out in Puck or Judge in the most huge and 
hideous caricature. But for their graiideur of genius, 
their force of character, Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Lin- 
coln, Lee, Grant, and a host of the greatest men of 
our times would have been buried in the oblivion of 
history by the little carpers and the maligners. Spur- 
geon, Talmage, and Henry Ward Beecher, Roger 
Williams and John Wesley, have , been spotted all 
over; and one of the sources from which spring the 
persecution of these great men at the hands of those 
who have tried to injure them is the jealousy of little 
preachers, little editors, little critics, and little sap- 
pers and miners of character. So we might speak of 
Gladstone and Bismarck of to-day, of Luther and 
Knox, of Fulton and Galileo, of a host of reformers, 
inventors, discoverers, developers, and creators, who 
have changed the. face of history, and who, under 
God, lifted the world to its present height of civiliza- 
tion against the prejudice, opposition, and persecution 
of mankind. Jealousy and envy have ever stood by on 
the part of little asses to kick at and drag down to 
the level of their inferiority and baseness the great- 



JEALOUSY. 235 

ness and grandeur of all that tower above tliem. " To 
be great is to be misunderstood," says Emerson, and 
he might have added, "to be hated." 

A part of the gloiy of maligned goodness and of 
traduced greatness has been the supreme indifference 
ordinaril}^ manifested toward inferior baseness and 
opposition. The ass has kicked, but the lion has not 
noticed even when he observed. The dog has bayed 
the moon in vain. A small-statured man once struck 
a huge, gigantic fellow in conversation with another. 
The big' man didn't seem to notice it; and some one 
present remarked to the little fellow: "You had bet- 
ter stop striking Jones, or he may find it out after 
awhile, and knock the life out of you." "We have all 
heard the story of the big man who had a little midget 
for a wife. She frequently abused and beat him with- 
out his paying any attention to her. Some one asked 
him why he submitted to it. " It amuses her," he 
said, " and don't hurt me, and so I let her enjoy her- 
self." This is the way the truly great treats the little 
fellow that brays and kicks at him. The ass is a good 
animal in his place; but out of his place, posing as a 
lion, or kicking at a lion, his asininity becomes ob- 
served, his ears pop up, his voice is recognized, and 
his character becomes apparent. JSTothing is so be- 
coming to a donkey as to stay in his place, keep his 
mouth shut, and control his little heels. The majestic 
lion speaks for himself without roaring; and it is a 
condescension of his dignity whenever he has to 
stoop to recognize or punish an ass. 

The only time when the ass really enjoys the great- 
est satisfaction is when the lion is dead, and when he 
can kick or kick at him with impunity. A small and 
jealous mind always rejoices when the great man in 



236 JEALOUSY. 



his way dies or falls into misfortune; and it is often 
then that the little fellow brays the loudest and lets 
his heels fly the highest. The magnanimous man, the 
great mind rejoices in the grandeur and glory of oth- 
ers like himself or above himself; and when Greek 
meets Greek in the arena of contest the lofty spirit is 
proud of the man worthy of his steel. David was pur- 
sued by Saul all his life, a great man in some respects, 
belittled and dwindled and dwarfed into a pigmy, at 
last, by jealousy; but David's great heart and noble 
spirit could refuse to take the life of his antagonist 
when he had him in his power, and when " God's anoint- 
ed " fell on Gilboa's gory heights the magnanimous Da- 
vid could sing a dirge of sorrow, a paean of praise infi- 
nitely more than worthy of his fallen foe. O David, was 
there ever a soul like thine? How little this great 
man felt in his own estimation, as in the light of Saul 
he called himself a " flea! " but how, in the light of his 
jealous and mean antagonist, does he tower in moral 
grandeur above all the manhood and magnanimity 
ever written of men! N^one but Christ surpassed 
him here; and Paul and Moses in this respect never 
equaled his bearing toward Saul. AYhile hunting his 
father's asses Saul stumbled upon a kingdom; and he 
tumbled from the kingdom playing- the meanest ass 
that ever kicked against a splendid and lofty spirit. 
He Avent down, and David went up, as is the usual 
fate of the asinine spirit and the lion-hearted. Let us 
learn here, my friends, the sublime moral lesson that 
greatness and goodness will ever triumph over and in 
spite of all the asinine littleness and opposition of the 
world. 




THE LAW AMD THE GOSPEL. 

jERE we discover two mountains standing op- 
posite each other. They are old Sinai of 
Arabia and Calvary of Judea, a deep val- 
ley intervening- between them and Jernsalem 
in the distance. On Sinai stands Moses with 
the two tables of stone in front of him, the old 
monnt shronded in clouds which hurtle with thunders 
and lightnings, pealing and striking with their bolts 
upon Calvary. On Calvary stands Christ in front of 
the cross, holding the everlasting gospel in his hands, 
shedding the softer and more genial light of evangel- 
ical truth across the valley between, and illuminating 
the tables of laAV in Moses's hands. Sinai and Cal- 
vary, Moses and Christ, the law and the gospel — these 
are the counterparts and the complements of each 
other; and while the former typifies and foreshadows 
the latter, the latter fulfills and explains the former. 

From different stand-points of observation they in- 
terpret and blend with each other, and neither the 
gospel nor the law could be fully understood without 
the other. Especially is it true that the spiritual im- 
port of the law would never have been comprehended 
without the illumination of the gospel. " Thou shalt 
not commit adulter}^," says Moses; but Christ teaches 
that to lust in the heart is to be guilty of the act be- 
16 (239) 



240 THE LAW AXD THE GOSPEL. 

fore God. So of murder, theft, lying, covetonsness, 
and of every other sin incorporated nnder the law 
of God. Hence, -while a man by culture and refine- 
ment may be externally innocent of every transgres- 
sion, whether by word or deed, he may be a thousand 
times guilty of every transgression at heart, and if he 
is guilty of but one only, he is guilty of all. So ex- 
plains and develops the law under the light of gospel 
interpretation, and so it is interpreted that unselfish 
love to man and supreme love to God can alone keep 
or fulfill the law upon our part. 

Saul of Tarsus, Cornelius, the rich young ruler, 
were all " perfect," as touching the external observ- 
ance of the law; and yet the gospel discovered to 
Paul that he was the " chief of sinners," to Cornelius 
that he must be " saved " by the blood of Jesus as the 
meanest sinner in the world, and to the rich young 
ruler that he had never had the faintest conception 
of the law's spiritual significance, the end of which 
was salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Je- 
sus Christ. 

The law is not able to save, and Moses was not a 
savior. The law, or Moses, is simply our school- 
master to bring us to the Saviour, Christ; but we 
never could understand our school-master, except in 
the light of Christ and the gospel. All the law can 
do to help us is to bring the knowdedge and conscious- 
ness of sin and secure conviction and repentance to- 
ward God; but the law could not do this, except un- 
der the spiritual lamp of the gospel of Christ. In 
the absence of gospel light the law ceases to be a 
school-master and becomes a tyrant OA^er the blind and 
dead sinner, driving him to the endless bondage of 
precepts and ceremonies, trying to save himself by 



THE LAW A^T^D THE GOSPEL. 24:1 

self-righteousness and wearing a galling yoke which 
gives him no rest nor peace of body, mind, or heart. 
It is only when we enter the school-master's oflB-ce that 
we learn of Christ and exchange yokes to find the 
gospel burden light and easy, restful and peaceful to 
the enlightened and regenerated spirit. Without the 
gospel of Christ, whether in type or antitype, the 
Holy Spirit could never have brought us to learn the 
spiritual nature and import of the law upon a single 
human heart dead in sin. The word of Christ is the 
only pen, the blood of Christ the only ink by which 
the Spirit can legibly write God's law of life upon 
the fleshly tablets of the heart, and thus kill it to sin 
and make it alive unto God under his divine penman- 
ship. 

The word of God, both in the Old and the JN'ew 
Testament, is a dead letter to the dead sinner; but 
when, through a belief in the gospel and the hand- 
writing of the Holy Spirit, we are cleansed from sin 
and quickened to life in Christ, then we can compre- 
hend the law in the light of the gospel. We catch its 
spiritual import and purpose of revelation to us, and 
the Old Testament kindles bright and luminous as a 
star lit up in the splendors of the Sun of righteous- 
ness. We see the face of Moses and the summit of 
the old mount shine again with ineffable and unap- 
proachable splendor for the moment, and then we be- 
hold them soften down into the milder and sweeter 
radiance of Christ, who was "touched," and of Cal- 
vary, which can be "touched" by the lost and ruined 
sinner. 

The true believer of the Old Testament spiritually, 
though not so fully as we, comprehended the import of 
the law. Abel and Enoch, ISToah and Abraham, Mo- 



242 THE LAW AXD THE GOSPEL. 

ses and David, all saw Christ and his day afar off by- 
prophecy and by the typical blood of " the Lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world." The gospel, 
says Paul, was preached to Abraham, and so to all 
the rest who truly believed. Through Moses, by 
whom came the law, they beheld Christ, by whom 
came grace and truth, the life and the light of the 
world; and the saved of all dispensations believed on 
his name, were cleansed by his blood, and were quick- 
ened by his Spirit, by the same immutable law of par- 
don and life, before and since Christ, before and since 
the Day of Pentecost. To the saved the law was al- 
ways, as now, the school-master which led to Christ, 
and the gospel prefigured or consummated was always, 
as now, the refulgent and reflective glory which lit up 
the tables in Moses's hand with their only true and 
divine interpretation. 

Keeping the symbolism of our picture in mind, how 
striking are the lessons we learn as we behold, from 
various stand-points, the law as lit up or illuminated 
by the gospel! 

Take the moral law. This is the law of life as Je- 
sus taught the rich young ruler, if a man keep it; but 
to this end a man would have to be born pure and holy, 
perfect; and then he would have to keep the law per- 
sonally, perfectly, and perpetually, from the cradle to 
the grave, in order to live by it. In fact, such a man 
could not die, and such a man has never lived. The 
very idea of death presupposes sin; for by sin death 
came into the world, and hence all have sinned, and 
were born in sin; "by nature the children of wrath," 
as Paul teaches the Ephesians. However correct a 
man's external observance of the law, however trained 
and kept by the most rigid legal culture, he cannot 



THE LAW AXD THE GOSPEL. 243 

obey the spirit of the law. " Cursed is every one that 
continueth not in all things which are written in the 
book of the law to do them; " and yet, in essence, not 
one single human being born of Adam ever obeyed 
one single precept written in the law, much less contin- 
ued in it, to do it; and yet this curse is pronounced 
upon the dead sinner incapable of keeping, in spirit, 
one jot or tittle of God's least commandment. Hence 
the necessity of Christ, who perfectly kept the law 
for us, who died to redeem us from its penalty; who 
became our Prophet, Priest, and King instead of Mo- 
ses, Aaron, and David; who became the second in 
place of the first Adam; and who, having substituted 
grace instead of law, became for us " wisdom, right- 
eousness, sanctification, and redemption " by the sat- 
isfaction of law. How gloriously the gospel lights 
up this fact when once you can make a sinner see 
that he cannot work out his salvation under the law, 
and when he can be made to cast himself upon Christ, 
his substitute for the law! 

How blind is a poor, self-righteous sinner, trying to 
live unto God by his morality! How much blinder 
still is the poor, self-conceited sinner, trying by " sci- 
ence falsely so called," to reason out his life in God! 
How the gospel of blood opens thus the blinded eyes 
to the terror and the weakness of law, to the futility 
of all philosophy, however excellent and useful as a 
rule of the present life! And how, in the very light 
of all law and philosophy, it brings before it Jesus, 
"the one altogether lovely and the chiefest among ten 
thousand!" Beneath the cross we can discover the 
exceeding sinfulness of sin, God's vindicative justice 
satisfied, and we can behold, as contained in the law, 
but never revealed by it, how he so loved the world 



244 THE LAW AJSTD THE GOSPEL. 

as to give his only begotten Son to die for it. The 
very law demanded this sacrifice of infinite and eter- 
nal love; and in the very sacrifice of love v^^e can be- 
hold the dignity and the supremacy of the law. 
Herein we behold the solution of an otherwise un- 
demonstrated problem: How God could be just to sin 
and yet love the sinner, and how he could at the same 
time justify the ungodly according to law.. This fact 
in the scheme of human redemption, revealed by the 
gospel, pours the brightest flood of light back upon 
the significance and value of divine law, which is the 
moral transcript of God's will and the moral reflec- 
tion of God's life. Morality is the essence of God 
and eternal, the spirit and essence of his law; and 
the gospel reveals that moral guilt can alone be atoned 
for by the sacrifice of infinite moral dignity. The 
law typified and foreshadowed this vital and central 
truth of Christianity, but the gospel makes it lumi- 
nous and refulgent on Calvary. In all these things it 
takes the law first of all to make an intelligent be- 
liever of the gospel; but it takes this intelligent be- 
liever of the gospel alone to look back upon Sinai and 
see and acknoAvledge the supremacy and dignity of 
God's divine law of life, inexorable when unsatisfied, 
and yet made potent and living by the atoning blood 
of Christ when written by the Holy Spirit upon the 
tablets of the regenerate heart. 

Take the ceremonial law with all its symbolic insti- 
tutions. What wonderful types and shadows of the 
" good things to come " under a gospel dispensation ! 
and yet how incomprehensible except under the light 
of that gospel! The bloody sacrifices of the law 
would be a horrible and hideous butchery if they did 
not set forth the altar of Calvary with its sacrifice of 



THE LAW AND THE GOSPEL. 245 

Christ, the " propitiation for the sins of the whole 
world." ]S"o wonder the poor, blinded IngersoUian 
sees nothing but the shambles in the sacrifices of the 
Jewish dispensation. He does not see Christ, and 
not seeing Christ in all, he cannot comprehend Aaron 
any more than he can comprehend Moses and his so- 
called " mistakes." It is a fearful and awful fact that 
God cannot come short of, nor go beyond, blood to 
save, because he cannot come short nor go beyond 
his law to help the sinner. " Without shedding of 
blood is no remission," said the law; but who could 
ever have understood this fearful maxim but for 
the adumbration of the fact in the light of Calvary's 
cross? Salvation is a legal transaction as well as a 
moral transformation. There can be no display of 
divine mercy without the vindication of justice, and 
it was the part of infinite and eternal love, foreshad- 
owed on Sinai and consummated on Calvary, to step 
down and out of glory, tread the wine-press alone, 
walk amid the woes of hell, taste the horrors of death, 
and shed the judicial blood of an atoning sacrifice for 
sin. Blood, blood, blood! Awful but glorious dis- 
play of God's legal supremacy and dignity to the in- 
fantile apprehension of the old dispensation; but, 
blessed be God, with one stroke of divine justice, 
once for all and forever, infinite Innocence died on 
the cross, closed the holocaust of centuries, and 
opened up the dim and cloudy past to the midday 
splendors of the Sun of righteousness, redeeming 
the world, transforming the centuries, and paving the 
way to the millenniums of glory. 

So we might speak of the types of the priesthood, 
the temple, and the kingly offices of Israel. How in- 
comprehensible, but for their revelation and fulfill- 



246 THE LAW AXD THE GOSPEL. 

ment in Jesus Christ! Aaron and his robes, the altar 
and the laver, the table of shew-bread, and the can- 
dlestick and the incense altar, the holy and the most 
holy iJlace, the ark of the covenant and the shekinah 
between the cherubims, the wonderful veil rent in 
twain at the crucifixion and uncovering- the most holy 
place, the two goats on the great day of atonement — 
all these who could have ever understood but for Cal- 
vary and its consummation? These things would 
have been enigmas, glittering and insoluble mysteries 
without significance, but for the gospel. How clear 
and beautiful and glorious do they kindle now to the 
believer's eye, and what strong confirmation do they 
give in proof of Holy Writ and of our glorious Chris- 
tianity! 

So we might speak of prophecy, which is a kindred 
development of the legal dispensation. The prophets 
of the Old Testament would be regarded as fanatics 
and visionaries but for the gospel. Yet how loftily 
and authoritatively do they speak to all generations 
when Christ and his apostles confirm their declara- 
tions, and when the gospel and the kingdom of God 
fulfill their marvelous predictions! David pictures 
the very crucifixion in all its details, and predicts the 
very words of Christ's crucial agony : " My God, my 
God, why hast thou forsaken me? " Isaiah foretells 
the Son of God by name— Immanuel, God with us, 
born of a virgin, and called "Wonderful, Counsel- 
or, mighty God, everlasting Father, The Prince of 
Peace." Daniel portrays the glory of his "everlast- 
ing kingdom," counts the very days and years to the 
time of his crucifixion, when " everlasting righteous- 
ness " should be brought in, and wdien " Messiah 
should be cut off*, but not for himself." Joel blazes 



THE LAW A:f«rD THE GOSPEL. 247 

forth the Pentecostal splendors, and they all conspire 
to proclaim the establishment, progress, power, and 
consummation of the Church down to the millennium 
in minute and unmistakable detail to the intelligent 
reader and believer of the gospel. How grandly do 
the prophets point to the cross and the kingdom of 
Christ! and how resplendently do their predictions 
and doctrines glow under the interpretation and ful- 
fillment of gospel light! 

Hoary seers of the centuries gone by! I see. you 
marching through the obscurity of ages, with stately 
step and awful form toward Calvary and the cross, 
and then I behold you grow radiant and luminous in 
the light of Christ and his apostles, as did Moses and 
Elijah, the representatives of the law and the proph- 
ets on Tabor's top. Then, as the transfiguration 
scene passes from my vision, I behold Moses and Eli- 
jah gone, and but One left in the midst of his rep- 
resentative apostles, while high Heaven exclaims, 
"This is my beloved Son; hear ye him;" and Avhile 
the everlasting record of God writes in letters of gold : 
" Jesus Only," He is the "Alpha and Omega " of 
both dispensations — the "All and the in all" of every 
age; and in him the law and the gospel, the prophets 
and the apostles, center as one complete unity, the 
complement and counterpart of each other. The old 
points forward to the new, and the new points back to 
the old, and both the old and the new covenants meet 
as the two parts of God's divine and eternal indent- 
ure, the will of the dead and living Testator, Christ, 
signed, sealed, delivered in his own blood, probated 
in the courts of heaven, and executed and adminis- 
tered and applied to a perishing world by the Holy 
Ghost. 




Bed too Short. Blanket too Narrow. 
— <-^-^"C-« — 

picture drawn for this sketch is an illustra- 
tion of Isaiah xxviii. 20: "For the bed is 
shorter than that a man can stretch him- 
self on it : and the covering narrower than 
that he can wrap himself in it." The carica- 
ture shows the wretched and sleepless condi- 
tion of one upon a cold night under such a situation 
of unrest. The real theme of the text is an Insuffi- 
cient Beligion — that is to say, a religion which has an 
insufiicient foundation upon which to lie, and an in- 
sufficient character with which to cover the soul. 
Self-sufficiency and self-righteousness, principles and 
practices which are fundamentally and resultantly in- 
efficient and vicious, constitute such a religion. The 
occasion of the text, however, involved the literal 
condition of the Jews, in the mind of the prophet, 
when they should be shut up in Jerusalem by the 
siege of the Assyrians, and possibly pointing to the 
final investment of the Eomans, when Jerusalem 
should be closed in and destroyed. 

The concrete idea of Isaiah, therefore, was that the 
Jews thus inclosed in their city would be placed 
in the most straitened circumstances; and with no 
God to help them, depending upon their leagues with 
other nations and looking to false gods for help, they 

(2m 



BED TOO SHORT, BLANKET TOO XARROAV. 251 

would have no foundation for hope and no covering 
against their fate. Jerusalem, with her walls and her 
bulwarks, would be like a bed too short to lie on, an 
insufficient defense in itself; and with no God to 
cover them with his righteousness and protection, 
they would be without wisdom and strength, like a 
man on a cold night with his blanket too narrow. In 
such a situation there would be neither rest nor com- 
fort, neither help nor hope; and any man who has 
spent a winter's night at a second-class hotel or a 
third-rate boarding-house, Avhere you are treated 
"just like home-folks," can have some appreciation 
of such a condition. 

The spiritual application of the picture before us — 
the figure of an insufficient religion — afl:brds an inter- 
esting study. What is such a religion? It is any 
religion which has no foundation to build upon, no 
character to clothe itself with for eternity. The only 
religion which ever offered a sufficient basis and a 
sufficient covering is Christianity. Christ is the only 
Hock of our salvation; and he alone can be just to 
sin and yet justify the ungodly.' ^JHe alone can pay 
sin's debt and impute righteousness, save the soul 
from death, and cover moral guilt. He died for our 
transgression, and he was raised for our justification; 
and when the Christian appears at the judgment he 
will stand upon the Rock of Ages for salvation, and 
will be clothed in the righteous robe of Christ's merit, 
the only " wedding garment " in which we can appear 
at the " great supper of the Lamb." We are saved 
by grace, justified by faith; and our entrance into 
life and glory will be based solely upon and charac- 
terized by the record and dignity of Christ, our great 
and eternal Substitute. The Christian's own charac- 



252 BED TOO SHORT, bla:nket too narrow. 

ter and righteousness are the evidence and outcome of 
salvation by grace, justification by faith here below; 
and his own character and righteousness will be his 
joy and reward hereafter; but the grace of God alone 
can, through Christ, regenerate and justify him, save 
and sanctify him, crown and glorify him. Christ is our 
" all in all," our " wisdom, righteousness, sanctifica- 
tion, and redemption," the "Author and Finisher 
of our faith; " and he is tha only bed upon which we 
lie, the only covering in which we wrap for salvation 
and sanctification. " Other foundation," says Paul, 
"can no man lay;" and Peter says, "There is no 
other name under heaven given among men whereby 
we can be saved." The atonement which Jesus made 
for our sins under God's grace is our all-sufficient 
foundation; and the righteousness of Christ wrought 
out in his perfect life, and imputed to us by faith, is 
our all-sufficient covering. 

Thus we are redeemed and thus clothed for God and 
eternity. In Christ alone, as in no other conceivable 
way, can we be made alive from the dead, and reck- 
oned innocent. Quickened by his word, justified by his 
blood through the operation of his life-giving and 
blood-cleansing Spirit, we are saved and sanctified; 
and when we stand at last before God, body and soul, 
we shall be absolutely perfect through the redemptive 
scheme, conceived, executed, and applied through the 
blood, the word, and the work of Christ. We shall 
completely escape death, hell, and the grave; and in 
the consummation of our resurrection from the dead 
we shall appear in glory without a stain uj)on our 
character, and without a defect in our nature — all 
through the perfection of Christ. It will take perfec- 
tion to stand before perfection, both legal and moral. 



BED TOO SHORT, BLANKET TOO NARROW. 253 

There is no other way, philosophical or religious, to at- 
tain this end but by the cross of Calvary, A man 
must be justified from the guilt of sin, he must be 
made alive from the dead, both morally and physically, 
and he must be presented before a perfect God without 
spot, wrinkle, or blemish, to inherit eternal life. How 
can this be done except through the crucified, risen, 
and glorified Redeemer as revealed in the Bible? 
How plain to the devout and intelligent believer! 
Who that knows the depth and character of sin can- 
not see and believe this truth? We must be 'perfect 
to live with God; and perfection has no foundation 
except in the redemptive atonement of Christ and in 
the covering character of Christ. JSTor can such per- 
fection be wrought out in man or applied to his life 
except through the pardoning and justifying blood 
and the regenerating and sanctifying Spirit of Christ. 
Out of Christ, in the very nature of things, God 
must be a consuming and eternal fire. "Blessed is 
the man whose sin is covered, and to whom the Lord 
imputeth not iniquity." 

But let us now glance, by contrast, at the religions 
of human reason and superstition. The Jews tried 
idolatry. They made leagues with surrounding na- 
tions and worshiped their gods, seeking help against 
internal division and foreign oppression. They for- 
got Jehovah, they abandoned the blood of the typical 
covenant, and the consequence was that they became 
a prey to their own internal dissensions and corrup- 
tions and fell under the appalling domination of for- 
eign despotism and superstition. All the gods and 
armies of Egypt, Assyria, and Moab could do them 
no good. Straitened and stricken by famine and 
siege, desolate, distracted, and divided among them- 



254 BED TOO SHORT, BLAIS^KET TOO NAItKOW. 

selves, without the help and hope of Israel's God, 
they ever found heathenism and idolatry a bed too 
short to stretch upon and a covering too narrow to 
wrap themselves in. They only survived and lived 
when they cried and returned to God and to the ark 
of the covenant. When idolatry and heathenism 
had been cured among the Jews by captivity, they 
finally fell into Pharisaism and formalism, another 
bed too short and another blanket too narrow; and 
in the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, 
when the nation was shut up and slaughtered within 
the helpless walls of the golden city, we have a per- 
fect idea of the Prophet in the declaration of this 
text and in the use of this figure, who beheld a peo- 
ple lying down upon a false and hollow religion, and 
seeking to cover themselves with their own sufficiency 
and righteousness. 

So with every other nation worshiping the gods of 
reason or superstition. They have perished or are per- 
ishing from the face of the earth. Babylon, JS'ineveh, 
Egypt, Greece, and Rome, with all the glory of their 
empires and their civilization, have passed away upon 
the foundation and under the cover of an insufficient re- 
ligion. The only nations which have lived and pros- 
pered, and elevated the earth are those which have 
recognized and honored Christ and Christianity. All 
other nations now living are simply dead while they 
live; and they only quicken and advance with the 
glory of the age as the blood-stained banner of the 
cross is unfurled above them. What is true of a na- 
tion is first of all true with the individual; and in 
proportion as the true or false religions prevail is a 
nation, a State, or a community dead or vital. 

Let us look, individually and characteristically, at 



BED TOO SHORT, BLANKET TOO NARROW. 255 

this subject before we come 'to a conclusion. Behold 
the moralist and the philosopher, dex^ending respect- 
ively upon his self-righteousness or his wisdom for 
^salvation, and see if his bed is not too short and his 
blanket too narrow. Intellectual self-conceit or moral 
self-righteousness is the foundation he lays or the 
roof he puts upon his religious structure. He needs 
no Jesus, or only wants him as a convenience, not a 
necessity. Christ may have been a good man, a per- 
fect teacher, a model exemplar in life and sacrifice; 
but he is not a Redeemer, a Saviour! He is a great 
helper, but his blood neither cleanses nor does his 
Spirit make alive ! Christ and him crucified is a stum- 
bling-block to Jewish self-righteousness, and foolish- 
ness to Greek self-wisdom. The heart of man is the 
bulbous root of the hyacinth, and, at best, if you take 
Christ at all, the gospel is but the light of a moral 
sun which warms and develops the beautiful flowers 
of human excellence and immortality from the bulb- 
ous root in which is contained all the virtues and pos- 
sibilities of eternal life. Many do not need Christ at 
all, in any sense. They are too good to be damned. 
They don't need blood to cleanse them. They require 
no regenerating life from God. They don't steal nor 
lie nor curse nor cheat nor drink, and they do good, 
are charitable, belong to the lodge or some benevolent 
order, and expect to get to heaven upon their own 
goodness and righteousness. Ask one of them if he 
trusts Christ for salvation, if he worships God, if he 
contributes to his cause, if he loves and serves the 
Creator and Redeemer upon the principle of allegi- 
ance and devotion as a child its parents, as a bene- 
ficiary his benefactor, as a subject his king, and he 
will tell you, " IS'o." God is under obligations to him, 
17 



256 BED TOO SHORT, BLANKET TOO jSTAEEOW. 

not he to God! At least, it is a matter of debit and 
credit, and God is on the debtor side of the account! 
Heaven is the result of covenant, a business transac- 
tion between him and his God; and he is expecting- 
the reward upon the ground of his philosophical acu- 
men or his moral self-righteousness. He is his own 
way, his own truth, and his own life. 

Well, now, this gentleman's bed is simply too short 
and his covering is too narrow\ It is not long nor 
broad enough for eternity. His covering* is about 
like the fig-leaf garb of Adam and Eve in the Garden 
of Eden, and his foundation is about like their hid- 
ing-place from the eye of God. His self-righteous 
service is about like the offering of Cain, the works 
and fruits of his own hands, offered to God and re- 
jected. The fig-leaves had to be taken off of Adam 
and Eve and the skins from the slain animal, the 
type of Christ crucified and of Christ's righteousness 
put on. The offering of blood by Abel*, not the fruits 
of Cain, was acceptable, because it pointed to " the 
Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world; " 
and our self-righteous and self-wise gentlemen will 
have to have Abel's blood as a foundation and Ad- 
am's lamb-skin as a covering to stand before God. 
"Without Christ and his righteousness he shall never 
see God. Out of Christ, let me repeat, God is a 
consuming fire. Alas for all ritualism and formalism 
and self-righteousness even in the profession of Chris- 
tianity ! Even these are a bed too short, a blanket too 
narrow before God and angels and eternity. 

We might speak of a number of insufficient things 
which this picture illustrates, but we must close with 
but a mere mention. In all the affairs and relation- 
ships of life men must have a principle to build upon 



BED TOO SHORT, BLANKET TOO ^SJ-AEEOW. 257 

and a character to cover with. The foundations of 
government, business, society, family, and individual 
integrity depend upon this idea of life and success. 
In every case failure follows life and effort, if princi- 
ple and character be wanting. The politician whose 
only ambition is office and spoils, the business man 
whose only aspiration is money and ease, the preacher 
whose only ideal of his high office is reputation and 
place, the social butterfly whose only aim is admira- 
tion and conquest, the young man whose crowning 
hope is a good time in the world — builds his house in 
the desert, and, like the ostrich, covers his head in the 
sand. His foundation will be swept away in the 
flood, and his destiny will be uncovered by time and 
fate, which, like the hunter, pursue the game of fancy 
and folly to destruction. Man has but three objects 
in existence : (1) to glorify God, (2) to help his fellow- 
man to heaven and happiness, and (3) to develop him- 
self, withal and by all, to the stature of manhood in 
Christ. Here is a principle on which to build and a 
character with which to clothe which time cannot de- 
stroy nor eternity take away. Any other principle 
or character is an insufficient foundation and an insuf- 
ficient covering. The bed is shorter than a man can 
stretch out upon for eternity. The covering is nar- 
rower than that a man can wrap himself in for eter- 
nity. Life, temporal or eternal, must have true prin- 
ciples upon which to build and to rest, a true character 
with which to clothe and to cover. 




The Dru/^kard's Last OpFERmG. 

, ♦ >9< * 

the picture before us we behold the drunk- 
ard in tattered rags — bloated and blurred 
out of manhood's once ruddy and round- 
ly ed form — laying his own immortal soul upon 
the altar of his whisky god. This altar is a 
whisky-barrel, erected in a bar-room, behind 
the counter of which stands the monstrous shape of 
the bar- tender, and before which sits King Alcohol, 
holding up to his victim the whisky-bottle, which " at 
the last biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an ad- 
der." This poor, lost, and ruined immortal soul 
comes with his last offering. He has long since sur- 
rendered money, morals, character, wife, children, 
and all ; and in his desperation, with every resolution 
broken, and every hope fled, he devotes both soul and 
body in fiendish consecration to the divinity of his 
appetite. He cuts loose from every prospect of the 
future, and, glancing back over the checkered and 
desolate career behind him, he shuts himself up only 
to the madness and gratification of the present. He 
would give a world for one drink of whisky, and he 
says to the devil : " Give me drink, and I will give 
you myself." The fiends of perdition clutch him 
round about, and the devils of the bar-room con- 
spire with hell and make a league with death to 
(258) 



THE DRUNK AKd's LAST OFFERING. 261 

give him the damning cup, when he can't get bread 
to eat. 

When all else is gone to the drunkard he can still 
get a drink of whisky; and the most appalling spec- 
tacle of human depravity and debauchery is seen in 
the abandoned and forsaken soul that hazards hell 
and banishes heaven, if only the appetite for drink 
can be gratified. I have seen such, when every tie 
and motive of this life, when every touch and terror 
of eternity was swallowed up or obliterated from the 
deadened brain and the petrified heart by the all- 
consuming thirst for liquor. 

It is often the case that the temporal pains and pen- 
alties of the earthly hell into which strong drink turns 
life have no power to deter the reckless and mad- 
dened drunkard upon his downward and hellward 
career. I have seen the victim of delirium tremens, 
raving" with mania a ijotu, curse his habit, at lucid in- 
tervals, and swear reform; and, although shrieking 
and haggard, on the very verge of the grave, yet he 
would recover to break every purpose of reform and 
to violate every promise of manhood. It would seem 
that these awful experiences, which do sometimes ter- 
rify some into sober lives again, would never fail to 
reach the most obdurate debauchee who ever lived; 
but thousands go from one scene to another of this 
character, and persist to the death of all held dear in 
time and hoped for beyond the grave. The drunk- 
ard, strange to say, is seldom an infidel. His aAvful 
experiences — his horrid visions and terrors of con- 
science — compel him to believe that there is an aveng- 
ing God who has fixed his punishment upon the 
violation of law, and who has reserved a hell beyond, 
which is proved b}^ its foretaste and counterpart 



262 THE DIlU]SrKAIlD's LAST OrFERi:N^G. 

here. And yet it is strange that the poor lost wretch 
will persist in flying from one hell to reach another 
worse than the one already endured. I have seen 
some who thought the hell to come was almost a 
heaven to the one already reached, and once I heard 
a drunkard exclaim: " I had rather go to hell than to 
live!" It seems that drunkenness can so develop a 
torment in the soul and in the life of its victim as to 
make the prospective hell a paradise to the one en- 
dured, and hence we often see, in the blindness and 
delusion of inebriety and desperation, the man com- 
mit suicide and end a career which sends the soul to 
risk the ills it knows not of, in order to get rid of the 
ills which, while they only foretaste the future, dazzle 
with false hopes of the life to come. 

Of all the enigmas in this world it is drunkenness 
and the drunkard. The fascination and allurement 
of alcoholic intoxication — which fills the brain with 
fancy, which robs the heart of care and trouble, and 
which elevates the man with hallucinations of his own 
exemption from danger, peril, or poverty — are easily 
seen, to be sure. Prudence, fear, and depression, all 
take their flight, and, for the time being, the man 
lives in the airy realm of his own imagined security 
and happiness — turning loose every passion, to revel 
in its fancied or real gratification, and subordinating 
reason, will, and motive to the wild and ungoverned 
play of emotion. Most men enjoy this state of ex- 
hilaration and delirium, and when intoxicated imagine 
that they are wiser, better, and happier, often, than 
the best of earth. But it is a wonder that the dread- 
ful collapse of remorse and degradation which seizes 
the sensibilities and the intellections when the sober 
moment comes does not forever banish, with horror, 



THE DRUN"KAEd'S LAST OFFERl^^-G. 263 

the thought of such a state again. For a time it does 
frighten and debar the drunkard in the incipiency of 
his delusive and destructive habit; but as the habit 
grows the victim becomes ingulfed with the irrepress- 
ible desire to drown one collapse by another debauch. 
Even when the purpose of reformation gives a long, 
lucid interval it is strange that the drunkard's fear- 
ful experience is forgotten, and, in the mad thirst 
for the alcoholic eifect and experience, he will, against 
every protest of conscience and remembrance of hor- 
ror, again go back to the bottle. The fact is that 
drunkenness becomes a disease, under the nomenclat- 
ure of cenomania; and when the fierce frenzy of that 
disease takes possession of the man, however long the 
interval of sobriety, he would rush to the bottle over 
the very pit of hell itself. In thousands of instances 
this disease becomes chronic and constitutional, and 
nothing but scientific and prolonged treatment can 
cure it. The truth is that habitual drunkenness be- 
comes a disease in every case, and in only a few in- 
stances curable by the loftier will and motive power 
of the inebriate. He is like the man afflicted with 
cancer or consimiption or scrofula; and his delusive 
and habitual disease of the appetite must be cured by 
all the forces of mind and medicine which can be ap- 
plied. The solution of that enigma which at lasj. 
makes a man Avilling to sell his soul for whisky lies 
largely in the theory that drunkenness becomes a 
constitutional and chronic disease. Tt is like any oth- 
er species of moral or mental insanity — once formed, 
and the disease once fixed in our nature, it is almost 
as impossible to resist our impulses in the one case as 
in the other. 

What is a man's duty under these circumstances? 



264 THE druxkakd's last offering. 

What is the duty of his friends? What is the duty 
of his country? 

1. The man's responsibility lies in ever coming- to 
such a pass. With the experience and observation 
of the world before him, with his own experience 
and observation in the incipient stages of his temp- 
tation and his disease, his accountability lies in not 
stopping- his dread career at once; and when he is 
once confirmed in his habit, once diseased beyond the 
cure of will and motive, he should do as any other 
insane or diseased man does — go to the asylum and 
submit himself to treatment. He has God, and relig- 
ion too, on his side; and with the use of means, dili- 
gence, and prayer the grace of God can cure any case 
of inebriety where all manhood is not destroyed and 
when drunkenness and debauchery have not passed 
the day of grace. The drunkard may not have the 
power of self-cure within; but he can submit him- 
self to scientific and divine remedies. The worst of 
men have been saved and elevated into positions and 
lives of usefulness and power, as John B. Gough, 
Benson, Bliss, and others I have known. 

2. A man's friends and family should combine to 
save him; and he should be cut loose from all his so- 
called friends who conspire to ruin him. We should 
feel that a soul is worth something; and, with its 
temporal and eternal dignity before our eyes, we 
should treat the drunkard as we treat other people 
diseased, mad, and helpless in themselves. Energy, 
prayer, work, long-suffering, patience, and determina- 
tion, by all a man's friends and family combined 
would accomplish in most instances the drunkard's 
reformation and salvation. We usually treat drunk- 
enness as a hopeless matter, become disgusted with 



THE drunkard's LAST OFFERIXG. 265 

its victims and turn our back upon them; and if, often, 
we would do as mucli for them as we do against 
them they would be saved. "We want faith, love, and 
work here as in the salvation of the lost and of the 
heathen; and were the Christian world bent upon the 
drunkard's salvation as upon China, India, and Africa 
thousands would be redeemed where thousands fill a 
drunkard's grave and go to hell. JSTothing is impos- 
sible with God; and if he could save the thief on the 
cross, Mary Magdalene, John Bunj^an, and John B. 
Gough, who is it he cannot redeem in the use of 
Christian charity and energy, faith and hope? The 
drunkard is responsible; but how many of us are 
equally responsible for not helping and saving the 
lost thousands annually dying and going to hell? 

3. The duty of the Government is as equally clear 
and plain. ]N^o civilized Government in the nineteenth 
century — just bordering on the twentieth century — 
should allow a traffic which makes universal pauper- 
ism, crime, and insanity. If men Avill have liquor, 
let them make it an,d use it for theuiselves; but let 
no man be allowed, in violation of divine x)recept, 
to put the bottle to his neighbor's mouth. As a 
medicine, if necessary, the manufacture and sale of 
ardent spirits can be restricted to the scientist and 
the druggist under the pains and penalties of law; 
and so ought every deadly poison used in the materia 
meclica. ISTovices and irresponsible persons should 
not make nor sell opium, strychnia, arsenic, and other 
poisons, without license and prescription; and alco- 
holic liquors, so far as manufacture and traffic are con- 
cerned, should fall under the same rule, as they do in 
some States and countries. A pint of whisky will 
kill a man not addicted to drink: and hence it is a 



266 THE drunkard's last offering. 

deadly narcotic poison. Worse than this, it is to 
thousands a poison as fascinating and deadly as the 
charm of the serpent; and it is infinitely more dan- 
gerous to handle and taste it than all other poisons 
put together. To touch it is to die by multitudes, in- 
fatuated with its effect; and if ever there was one 
poison more than another the object of alarm and 
the subject of legislative restriction, it is whisky. 
By all means it is the duty of the Government to 
destroy the saloon, pronounced a nuisance and a uni- 
versal evil by our Supreme Court, and adjudged 
amenable to State and national legislation. If liquor 
must be sold, for humanity's sake kill the bar-room 
business, and let some plan be adopted by which the 
existing evil can be robbed of its social curse, essen- 
tially created in the saloon resort. Our Government, 
our politics, our legislative and business enterprise, 
are all dominated by the saloon, all corrupted in some 
form by this infamous and infernal machine of de- 
struction to every thing good and noble in man. 

Only look at the illustration which faces this 
sketch to see a true picture painted every day in 
vivid and awful reality in the tens of thousands of 
saloons which curse this sunny land. This is the ef- 
fect of the bar-room in its last analysis. On the altar 
of his whisky god the drunkard lays at last his 
shrieking, immortal soul; and sends it to his fiery, 
endless, hopeless hell. Such is the power of alcohol, 
and such is its doom that no drunkard shall enter the 
kingdom of heaven. It may be said that men will 
eat opium, or take cocaine, or form other habits of 
the appetite; that they will lay their souls upon the 
altars of other gods as vicious and damning as whis- 
ky ; but this argument could be used for the practice 



THE drunkard's LAST OFPERIXG. 267 

of any other vice. Alas for the cokl-blooded theory 
that every individual is alone responsible for himself; 
and that I may place before him any temptation I 
choose, with impunity and without responsibility! 
Alas for the fallacy of the " personal liberty " soph- 
ism that every man may kill himself, and his neigh- 
bor too, by whisky, if only a license is granted to 
drink and sell this damnable destroyer! Why legis- 
late against concealed weapons, gambling-hells, and 
lewd houses? or why not license them all as we do 
the saloons? 

My friends, think on this picture — the most pitiable 
and the most horrible ever drawn by the imagination. 
Keflect and ponder, poor tempted man, and then go 
and drink again if you can, with such a prospective 
fate before you. Think upon it, sober men and wom- 
en, and then give your influence, if you can, to the sa- 
loon. Kemember we shall all meet at the judgment 
— the drunkard and the saloon-keeper, the law-maker, 
the voter, and the citizen — and if no drunkard can 
enter heaven, if no giver of drink can escape God's 
almighty " woe," what shall be the penalty inflicted 
upon the man who wielded his sufi'rage and his influ- 
ence to fasten the accursed saloon upon his country? 

Tell me I hate the bowl? 

Hate is too feeble a word! 
I loathe, cthhor; my very soul 

With strong disgust is stirred 
AVhene'er I hear or read or tell 
Of this dark beverage of hell. 




THE TWO WAYS. 



)UT two roads lead to eternity, and these two 
roads lead in precisely the opposite direc- 
tion. One of these roads leads to heaven, 
the other to hell; and we are all on one or 
the other of them. There are no other roads 
leading to eternity, no by-ways which switch 
off, no midways between; and the picture before us 
is an exact representation, in substance, of what Christ 
says in Matthew vii. 13, 14: "Enter ye in at the 
strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the 
way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be 
which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and 
narrow is the way, which, leadeth unto life, and /ew 
there be that find it." 

1. Let us look at the narrow way. It is entered by 
a strait or difficult g'ate, represented by the little nee- 
dle gate in the wall of Jerusalem, through which it 
was next to impossible for a camel to go. Before do- 
ing so he had to be stripped of all his load, and get 
down on his knees, and with great difficulty squeeze 
through. Coming to Christ is like entering this gate, 
for a man can just barely get through, stripped of his 
load or luggage. So Christ enters us, as we enter 
him, by repentance for sin, which we renounce, and 
by faith, through which we receive him into our 
(268) 



THE TWO WAYS. 271 



hearts as he receives ns into his favor. We cannot 
get to Jesus with the worki on our hack, witli our 
hearts full of worldliness and sin; and he could not 
accept us in this condition if we could so get to him. 
"We have to make a complete surrender of ourselves 
and of our sins at his feet, and it is thus we enter 
Christ, who is the door. He is alone the sheep-gate into 
the kingdom of heaven, and if we climb over the wall, 
or get in ostensibly by any other wa}^, we are thieves 
and robbers. Hence the entrance to the " narrow 
way " of life is called a " strait gate," because it is 
difficult or hard to enter. It is too close for human 
nature, unregenerated and unconverted to God, and 
it squeezes sharply against all our natural inclinations 
and predilections, even when converted. The world 
does not like this " strait gate," and hence but com- 
paratively few ever really enter it. Thousands go 
around it by a loose and false profession and climb 
over the wall. They apparently get on the narrow 
way, like Bunyan's man " Ignorance," and others; but 
they will soon either forsake this narrow way or else 
they will go on to the end in delusion. This little 
strait gate, this sheep-gate, is the gate of repentance 
toward God as well as of faith in the meek and lowly 
Saviour, and it implies that conversion to Christ which 
incarnates his life, his spirit, and his truth, and which 
qualifies for putting on and for following Christ in 
his appointed and holy way. This gate crucifies hu- 
man nature to begin with, and without entrance 
through it it is impossible to tread the narrow but heav- 
enly road. How important it is to enter, to start 
right! and how many thousands would have been 
saved the trouble and misery of having attempted, de- 
lusively and blindly, to tread a path which they have 
18 



272 THE TWO WAYS. 



ever tried to broaden and smooth to suit their tastes, 
appetites, pride, passions, and ambitions! 

But let us notice particularly the narrow way itself. 
You see but few who are treading it, for 
Wisdom shows a narrow path, 
With here and there a traveler. 
"We have shown that the strait gate to be entered is 
the reason why the few travel the narrow path. Many 
seek to enter in, but are not able because they do not 
seek to enter aright; and hence only the "few," as 
Jesus shows, walk this narrow way. 'Now it is a very 
close way, but it is amply broad enough for truth and 
righteousness, for faith, hope, and love to find room. 
It is not close and narrow to true conversion, to con- 
secrated and devoted Christian life; and it is broad 
enough for all the people of ten thousand such worlds 
as this to get upon and go together if they would 
enter the needle-gate of the sheep. This narrow way 
is sometimes a rugged way to the Christian, but all 
its hills of difficulty or its valleys of humiliation or of 
death in the end can be crossed by faith, and with all 
its rugged places and trying obstacles it passes through 
its Beulah Land of delight and its Delectable Mount- 
ains to glory. The way to heaven is upward, lofty, 
and pure; and it is the way of the cross, without 
the struggles and conflicts of which no crown and no 
glory would ever be won by the Christian. All earth- 
ly honor and glory is achieved by treading the narrow 
path of virtue, toil, and tears; and if nothing glorious 
in earthly rewards is ever won without a cross, how 
much more shall we war and work on the narrow path 
to glory for the crowns and honors of the heavenly 
world! We are not saved by walking this way. We 
are saved by entering the gate — Christ; but by our 



THE TWO WAYS. 273 

walking on the narrow way, which is Christ also, we 
demonstrate our salvation by grace, work it out to 
our own satisfaction and development, make our call- 
ing and election sure, and prove by following it to the 
end that we are the children of God. Traveling the 
narrow way is the evidence that we have entered the 
strait gate — that is, if we travel it faithfully and fol- 
low it to the end. Otherwise, we would prove that 
we had climbed over the wall and traveled it in pre- 
sumption and delusion. How happy and glorious is 
this little narrow path to the travelers home to God! 
Their very trials, conflicts, and cross-bearings inure 
to their manhood in Christ, and every victory over 
sin and Satan by the way, every escape from Doubt- 
ing Castle off the way, every step of development in 
the divine life brightens our path over the hills of time 
and gives us glimpses of the heavenly city beyond 
the dark Jordan of death. "We have to cross the dark 
river at last, but with this last struggle our journey 
on the narroAV pathway ends, and, like Bunyan's pil- 
grim, we enter in through the pearly gate into the 
golden city flooded with the light of God and filled 
with the hosannas and hallelujahs of angels. How 
often we wish our journey ended, and that we were 
there ! 

2. But now let us look at the other side of the pict- 
ure. There is a big gate, and thousands are entering- 
it; and there is the broad way, and the "many" are 
rushing down it to destruction. This represents the 
great caravan gate in the wall of Jerusalem, and the 
great highway along which the multitudes could walk 
as well as enter. This is the world and the way of 
the world, and this gate symbolizes the easy and in- 
viting entrance which opens up the way of the world 



274 THE T WO WAYS. ^ 

iiiT^asting death. But let us examine minutely 
hisbig.wid! gate and its significance, or meamng, 
in ftefanc^uage of Christ. It indicates that the en- 
hance to the ^ay of sin and death has no barr.ers nor 
Ob notions. It is easy to enter, because we go upon 
this broad path in perfect accord with our tastes, a - 
p^tUes, pa sions, ambitions, preferences and pi^jn- 
iees This is pre-eminently the gate of natural se- 
ctTon or prefe^Lce, and we enter it "-^d'^hoo.^ ^^ 
at the yeais of accountability, we turn from Chu to 
follow the world, the flesh, and the devil. Theie is 
no tie slightest'trouble in entering this gate no st^r- 
render of self nor any sacrifice of Pl^-^-^-J "' ^^^^^" 
the contrary, every gratification to sinful tastes, lusts, 
and ambitions are offered. This gate is so wide, beau- 
tiful, and attractive that over its arch "^ f ^P ;"S ^^ 
ters Ire written popular mottoes and emblematic lUus- 
trl ions and seductive advertisements of every vice, 
am sement, false religion, delusive sentiment, bad vo- 
cation, and corrupting philosophy, and ^a .an s -ds 
there as an angel of light, promising o satisfy evey 
want of body, soul, and spirit along his magmflcen 
broad way to destruction. He has something to charm 
and satisfy the wise and the foolish the l-"-;! =•- 
the unlearned, the good and the bad the old and the 
young, the great and the small, and even the pious 
and devout soul following the phantoms of unspiritual 
religion and science falsely so called. Anybody can 
enter who wants to, and there is not a smgle restric- 
tion put, not a qualification required to enter this dev- 
il's gate, which opens upon the way to hell. An an- 
<,el could enter if he wanted to, and nothing would 
delight Satan and the world more than to get a true 
Christian to go in at this fatal entrance to ruin. All 



THE TWO WAYS. 275 



is merry and lusty and delightful to the senses upon 
entering this world-wide gate. 

And now let us examine the way a little. It is a 
broad, popular, latitudinarian route. Any thing can 
get upon it of any size or proportion, religiously, 
philosophically, ethically, or aesthetically; and so of 
iniquity, infidelity, or atheism in the most monstrous 
and hideous forms. Satan has a way of keeping 
apart things dissimilar in appearance, however alike 
in nature; but his road is broad enough to accommo- 
date every thing which tends to evil and death, wheth- 
er incongruously mixed or separated into classes. He 
can ]3ut the whole world upon this route and keep it 
going without a jar or a jostle; and wherever con- 
flict by association would tend to work ruin to his 
schedule of destruction he knows how to classify and 
separate as well as harmonize and assimilate. 

Again, this road is smooth and well kept. It is 
finely engineered and worked; and it is kept full of 
graduated and congenial attractions to satisfy and de- 
coy every taste and predilection as the heterogeneous 
and yet homogeneous multitude presses on to the end 
of the way. God's angels and ministers shriek out 
warnings to the thousands doomed in their course; 
but the witcheries of music and the shouts of pleas- 
ure and the enthusiasm of worldliness and the intoxi- 
cations of business and the rapture of pursuit drown 
the admonitions of God and the cries of conscience. 
Comparatively only a few ever awake to their situa- 
tion, their delusive career of madness, and turn back 
to enter the strait gate and the narrow way. Some 
find this way of the transgressor hard by reason of 
excessive wickedness. They drop prematurely through 
the traps and pitfalls of the delusive way. The great 



276 THE TWO WAYS. 



mass, however, move joyously on in the moderation of 
wickedness, attracted still deeper by the illusions of 
the way, until they plunge off at the end of life and 
at the end of their deceptive road to death. 

Finally, this broad road to destruction, this smooth 
road to death, is downward and winding; and while 
it often appears to rise by undulation it so winds as 
to hide the fact that each declension is deeper down- 
ward than the one before it. Many a man thinks he 
is getting up in the world who does not dream that he 
is sinking deeper down every moment toward hell; 
and so Satan manages to deceive thousands as to the 
perpetual declension of his broad way. It is perfectly 
easy to go to hell, as much so as it is to ride upon a 
glass railroad down grade or to slide down hill. We 
follow simply the trend of our moral gravity in sin, 
and every moment of life the sinner is bending down- 
ward toward the bottomless pit. Only the inflated 
balloon rises in spite of downward gravity, and only 
the soul converted to Christ and filed with the Holy 
Spirit can rise to God and heaven against this down- 
ward gravity to death and hell. In fact, Jesus, the 
greater body, turns our moral gravity the other way 
when we are converted, and, attracted toward him 
with joy and gladness, as light as the air we take the 
narrow path upward instead of the broad way down- 
ward. Yes, in the nature of things the broad way is 
downward, and, like leaping over the awful JSTiagara, 
the sinner at last, gaining momentum at every step, 
plunges into the swirling vortex of everlasting despair. 



THE PROFESSIONAL LIAR, 




P^HIS sketch presents, with the j)ictiire, a char- 
acteristic liar. He does not possess the 
physiognomy of the malicious, mischiev- 

•fir^ ous, or slanderous perverter of the truth to 
the injury of others. He is rather a jolly, big- 
mouthed Munchausen, a rollicking Mulhatton, 
who lies without motive, and who yields to a con- 
stitutional idiosyncrasy to exaggerate facts and fig- 
ures, and to create figments and fictions of the 
brain. He represents, however, a considerable class 
of men and women of all shades and shadows, given 
to the habit and business of falsehood, and who fol- 
low their vocation as if they enjoyed it, or could not 
help it. Some of them tell their lies until they be- 
come the truth to them, lost, as they are, in the ob- 
livion of forgetful repetition and of conscienceless 
persistency. Some lie simply for fun, as we some- 
times hear, while others just lie from an inordinate 
and innate inclination against the truth. The facul- 
ty of veracity is wanting, or so feebly developed that 
lying is perfectly natural, and they prefer to lie even 
when the truth would pay them better. If you tell a 
remarkable story in the presence of one of these 
characters, he will excel you, and his peculiar facul- 
ty for mendacity affords him marvelous ingenuity in 

(279) 



280 THE PROFESSIOlSrAL LIAE. 

constructing, off-hand, the most plausible fabrications 
for deception. ^ Of course a man develops to perfec- 
tion along tjie line of his genius, and hence the mar- 
velous gift of some liars in conceiving and adapting 
falsehood to every occasion and circumstance which 
call their habit into play. ]N'o matter what subject 
the professional liar touches, he is equal to the emer- 
gency. If you talk about money, he is worth his 
millions — or has been — or else his kin are all rich, or 
have been, or promise to be, and he himself will be a 
billionaire before he dies. In the past he has done 
many mighty and wonderful works. He has been 
everywhere — traveled the continents, sailed the seas, 
fought in Mexico and Cuba and at Sebastopol, and 
can show you his very picture in one of the illustrat- 
ed battles. He dined with all the sovereigns at the 
Paris Exposition, was Privy Council to the Shah of 
Persia for three years, owns a number of houses and 
lots in London and Vienna, expects soon to revisit 
the Holy Land, and God alone knows all he does 
not know and can do all he has not done. For hours 
I have listened to these Munchausen tales, which 
the professional liar reeled off without a twinge of 
conscience, and with all the air of vivid reality, and 
I have wondered why he might not, by some faint 
conception of truth, imagine that a man of some in- 
telligence and judgment did not perceive that he was 
lying. 

Sometimes I have thought that a few of these pro- 
fessionals had the lying mania so deeply rooted that 
it bordered upon insanity, and yet they were so intel- 
ligent and clear upon every thing else that I was con- 
strained to believe they were either cognizant of their 
vice or so blinded or deadened by habit that they 



THE PROPESSIOjSTAL LIAR. 281 

had lost consciousness of their iniquity. Some such 
I have known as otherwise clever Church-members, 
who could make an eloquent prayer-meeting talk, oc- 
casionally weaving their lies into pious discourse, and 
then I have wondered more than ever at the " mys- 
tery of iniquity." It is said, however, that the 
preachers tell stories — lies, as the heathen call them — 
when illustrating their sermons or writing up their 
protracted meetings, hut the preacher claims the li- 
cense of parable and allegory in this line, though 
sometimes we must admit he presses his claim upon 
its all fours. 

Again, we see another species of this class who 
lie not for fun or fame or wonder, but who pervert 
every thing they touch by exaggeration — that is, by 
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. If 
they hear a story, they color it and tell it all out of 
shape; or if they see with their own eyes, they are 
sure to represent a scene or an action in such a dis- 
torted form that the truth would never recognize it. 
This accounts for all the perversions of truth in the 
history of events, for these perversions arise out of 
the vicious disposition of the liar to change, magni- 
fy, minify, or otherwise distort and exaggerate facts. 
They seem to hate the truth, and their peculiar delight 
is to get things out of shape — sometimes in order to 
make mischief, but more generally in obedience to an 
inordinate bent of nature which inclines to lie rather 
than tell the truth, without any motive whatever. I 
met a man, one day, just one hundred yards from the 
scene of a difficulty between two men, which he had 
witnessed in a lawyer's office, and in which one told 
the other if he did not get out he would put- him out. 
He seemed a little excited and amused, his big eyes 



282 THE PKOPESSIO^STAL LIAE. 

rolling and sparkling as he said, "Jim L. kicked 
Tom I\. out of his office awhile ago, and then kicked 
him all up and doAvn the sidewalk; " and on he went. 
Knowing the parties, I went on down to the place, 
and inquired of the kicker the nature of the difficul- 
ty, and what he had done in the premises. "O!" 
said he, " I told Tom, who was a little drunk and in- 
sulting, that if he did not behave himself I would put 
him out of the office; that was all." 

Of course there are ordinarily many truthful peo- 
ple who will lie under a pressure, and there are 
but few people in the world who will not sometimes 
tell a lie, in some way and in some shape — for lying 
is a monster of such multitudinous form, such multi- 
plicity of manner, that he devours thousands of good 
people who think they never lie. A shrug of the 
shoulder, a wink of the eye, a facial delineation, the 
assumption of an air, the tone of the voice, a dodge 
or a parley, may be a great lie. It is surprising how 
many people lie by concealing the truth when it 
should be told, or by the evasion of the same ; and in 
an emergency many of the very best people will falsi- 
fy, or whip the devil around the stump. The excel- 
lent and fashionable lady who sends word to the 
door by the servant that she is not " in," in or- 
der to escape the bore of an unwelcome visitor, is a 
liar, although she labors under the mental reservation 
that she is not " in " to see the visitor she does not 
want to see. The business or professional man, whose 
courtesy runs into the slush and gush of dissimulat- 
ed love for his customer as a matter of policy, is a 
liar. The neighbor who says he is glad to see you 
when he is not, who slurs you and talks about you 
behind your back, is a liar. All this is ordinary ly- 



THE PROFESSIOl^AL LIAR. 283 

ing, and regarded by many as " a necessary evil; " 
but there is not enough of pressure or emergency in- 
volved to give excuse — if there is such an excuse for 
lying — for the perversion or the evasion of the truth. 
It was under such circumstances that Rahab de- 
ceived the spies, and was justified for her faith in 
that she believed God. So Jacob deceived his father, 
and secured the predetermined blessing, according 
to God's purpose. So Abraham deceived Pharaoh in 
regard to his wife. All of them lied under a press- 
ure, but it cannot be proved that they did right, or 
that there was not some other better way to accom- 
plish the end purposed, or that God did not punish in 
some way their sin. So, many good people have lied 
since under extraordinary circumstances, to avoid 
death or serious difficulties, or to accomplish good 
ends; but this is doing evil that good may come, and 
it is contrary to God's law. It implies also a want of 
trust in God's wisdom and protection, and it is con- 
trary to that divine promise and providence which 
covers with the -aegis of divine love all integrity to 
God under all circumstances. Daniel and Joseph 
and Job did not lie, nor deceive, nor evade, and God 
honored them all the more as they came out of their 
fiery ordeals of trial and affliction unscathed and un- 
spotted from the world. Peter dissembled, and it 
looked as if Paul was not free from the sin of eva- 
sive policy when he went up to Jerusalem, shaved his 
head, and went to charges, in order to bias the Jew^s 
in his favor; but they won nothing for the same at 
the hands of God, whatever the emergency, or the 
dilemma of duty. In the long run it pays best to be 
honest and truthful. We can but die for honor, and 
death for honor and God is a martyrdom which wins 



284 THE PROFESSIONAL LIAK. 

the righteous reward. Good people under ordinary 
circumstances have lied, but in the long run they 
never made any thing by it. Such people are not 
characteristic, habitual, intentional, deliberate, nor 
constitutional liars; but they fail of their honor, 
their reward, their glory, in the end, and suffer the 
punishment of God here below for their sins, what- 
ever their motives. Let Christians do right and tell 
the truth, if the heavens fall. It will be all right in 
the end, no matter what the emergency or the ap- 
parent consequences here below. 

It may be Avell to say right here that almost every 
liar is made by another liar. The parent that puts off 
his or her children under false pretenses teaches chil- 
dren how to lie. The very myth of Santa Glaus is 
one of the devil's fundamental schemes for training 
children in the habit of deception, however plausible 
and harmless it seems. I have heard a mother, when 
her baby wanted something to eat which she did not 
desire it to have, tell it there was no more, and after- 
ward, in the presence of the child, give it to some 
other person. The child then knows its mother has 
lied, and her influence for inculcating truth into this 
child is gone. These little deceptions are miiversally 
practiced upon children by their mothers and fathers 
— manufacturing deceivers out of the young and ten- 
der heart thus practiced in the art of so-called white 
lying. The merchant teaches the young clerk to lie, 
likewise to steal, when falsehoods are told about the 
cost of goods, and when false measures or weights are 
palmed off upon the ignorant purchaser. The slight- 
est indirection or prevarication or pretense, upon the 
part of older people, is detected by children, and the 
faintest example or precedent upon our part in this di- 



THE PROFESSIONAL, LIAR. 285 

rection is readily followed by the vicious young 
heart. Some children are disgusted with the indis- 
cretion or crookedness of their parents or superiors, 
but the great mass of them will copy all the evil 
traits, and omit all the good ones characteristic of 
our lives. Three-fourths of the lives in the world 
are made by their mothers and fathers, tutors and 
employers, their older and superior exemplars in 
every calling and walk of life; and there is no sin 
for- which, whether directly or indirectly committed, 
older people will be held more accountable, as a 
matter of influence upon the young. Old folks, be- 
ware of manufacturing liars out of your children, 
your pupils, or others under your care. 

Finally, the Bible abhors the liar. The devil is a 
liar from the beginning, and he is the father of lies 
and of liars. More than this, among other hideous 
and awful sins, lying is put down as one of the damn- 
ing vices. Adulterers, whoremongers, drunkards, 
railers, and the like, shall not inherit the kingdom of 
God, and lying is put into the black category of these 
crimes. ]N"othing that works abomination or makes a 
lie will be allowed to enter the Golden City. God 
hates lying, and there is no character among men 
more despised or abominated than the regular liar. 
It is the most contemptible of vices — tolerated by 
nobody and execrated even in jest. We love the 
man of truth. "We honor the man upon whose word 
we can depend, and whose word is his bond and his 
oath; and, whatever other vices he may possess, his 
honesty and veracity will cover a multitude of sins 
in the eyes of the world at least. There are business 
and professional men, laboring men and tradesmen, 
farmers and contractors, so-called ladies and gentle- 



286 THE PROFESSIOJVAL LIAR. 

men, whom yon cannot trust. Their word is worth-- 
less — often when they are professors of religion and 
members of the Church; and to the pure and upright 
such characters are loathed with abhorrence and 
disgust. Worst of all, a liar is almost beyond recla- 
mation. His vice becomes as incorrigible as drunk- 
enness or lust, and it is seldom he ever recovers from 
the paralyzing grip of his giant sin. 

Epictetus said, " Liars are the cause of all the sins 
and crimes of the world; " and if so, how terrible 
must be their punishment, and who can wonder at the 
fearful grasp of such a sin upon the soul of the per- 
petrator of all mischief? Truly did Holmes say: 
" Sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle which 
fits them all." It is not strange that Shakespeare ex- 
claimed, " Lord, Lord, how is this world given to ly- 
ing! " nor is it strange that David cried out in his 
"haste" that "all men are liars." It is perhaps, 
with the exception of profanity, the most universal 
sin among men. The first-born ,of mankind was 
a murderer and then a liar, and from that time un- 
til now lying has been the pet policy of the world. 
l^o wonder David says that the wicked are estranged 
from God from their mother's womb, going g,stray and 
telling lies; and it would be hard to find a human be- 
ing who had not at some time in life blackened his 
character with a lie. All, more or less, learn to lie in 
childhood, and perhaps but few have ever grown en- 
tirely out of the clutches of this infamous habit. In 
all probability there is not an absolutely truthful and 
honest man in the world, or that ever lived, and lying 
is but one of the black features and sad evidences of 
the doctrine of universal and total depravity. 



19 




POWER OF TEMPTATION, 



^OU will discover the picture before us as 
conceived from the story of an African 
hunter which I read some years ago in 
i^ "Ford's Christian Repository." This hunt- 
er, accompanied by some natives, went out from 
camp one day in search of game. They came 
to the skirt of some thick underwood, and suddenly 
a small herd of antelopes darted from the thicket, 
whereupon the hunter fired at his game, but without 
effect. Immediately a huge lion stepped out from 
the bushes and presented himself before the hunter. 
The natives all fled, and the hunter was left alone, 
with an empty gun in hand, facing the terrible mon- 
ster with glaring- eye and ready to spring. He attempt- 
ed to load his gun; but the lion seemed to recognize 
instinctively what a gun meant, and with a deeply ut- 
tered growl prepared to spring. The hunter waited a 
moment, as the lion seemed to desist; and, Avondering 
why he did not spring upon him, he again attempted 
to reload, but again the fiercely glaring, growling 
lion prepared to make his fatal leap. The hunter 
soon discovered that the lion did not mean to make a 
breakfast out of him; and so he lay down upon the 
ground and waited his chances. The truth is that 
the lion had already killed and eaten an antelope; 

(289) 



290 POWER or TBMPTATIOJSr. 

and, being exceedingly fond of human flesh, he had de- 
termined to hold his prey for breakfast next morning. 
All the long, weary day, in the hot, broiling sun, the 
poor hunter had to lie, not daring to move, much less 
to touch his gun. The lion lay upon his haunches 
and his paws, and sometimes seemed to be asleep; 
but the slightest motion of the hunter would open 
the burning eyes and stimulate the angry growl. 
The lion did not roar in response to his companions, 
which could be heard repeatedly in the distance; for 
he did not intend to share his dainty meal with any of 
his neighbors. There he held the hunter almost fam- 
ished and fainting during the day, expecting every 
moment to be his last, and but vaguely hoping for 
relief. 

]Sright came on, and still the lion did not move. 
At last, however, the hunter noticed that he grew 
more and more restless. He began to growl and get 
upon his feet; then again he resumed his position, 
still restless and growling, as if something was dis- 
turbing him. Suddenly he prepared to spring upon 
him, when from behind a tree near by the" natives 
with fire-balls rushed upon the scene, when the lion 
fled to the thicket. "Load the gun, load the gun! " 
was the cry of the negroes; " for," said they, " he will 
soon come back." The hunter immediately prepared 
for the beast; and sure enough he came deliberately 
back to his position. As he did so the hunter took 
deadly aim, and killed him. The negroes had watched 
the event from a distance; and, being acquainted with 
the habits of the lion, they understood the meaning 
of his delay in holding the hunter. Knowing, too, 
the fear of fire on the -part of the lion, they as secret- 
ly as possible came up after dark behind the tree and 



POWER OF TEMPTATION. 291 

frightened the beast with the fire-balls. This was a 
sad and almost fatal experience to that hunter; and he 
must have ever remembered it with a shudder of hor- 
ror. That awful day was enough to turn him gray; 
for such experiences have been known to silver the 
blackest head of hair in one night. 

The application we wish to make of this story is 
the power of temptation; for temptation, like this 
lion, often holds men and women spell-bound and 
powerless for days and weeks and months and years. 
The devil is a roaring lion, going up and down, to and 
fro in the earth, and seeking whom he may devour; 
and often he stands before the man unprepared, with 
empt}!^ gun, and for the time being utterly helpless 
under his spell and his charms. He is like the serpent 
that he is, which mesmerizes the bird or the squirrel 
and holds him helpless until he is ready to make a 
meal of him, instances of which I, with others, have 
seen, and one of which I will here relate as told me 
once by a reliable gentleman friend of mine, a Mr. 
Hamilton, who lived in South-western Georgia. He 
was on his way to Dooly County, and at a certain 
point on the road he noticed a squirrel sitting on the 
trunk of a pine-tree, which did not move as he rode 
by. The singular fact struck him, and he rode back, 
to find the squirrel still sitting in the same position. 
He began to think of the stories he had heard of the 
rattlesnake's charm, and he began t(5 ride around to 
see if this was not a case of charming. He took an 
old road which circled around where once a tree had 
fallen across the main road, and before he knew it his 
horse leaped over a huge rattler lying straight across 
the obscure path. He got down, hitched his horse, 
picked up a long pole, and struck the snake, which 



292 POWER OF TEMPTATIOIST. 

had not moved, across the back, but did not kill him. 
As he struck the snake the squirrel dropped from the 
trunk of the tree, springing first into the air. He 
then left the serpent and examined the squirrel, which 
he found stupefied, but not dead; and going back to 
the snake he struck hian another blow across the head 
and killed him, the squirrel bouncing up again at the 
same time. He then went back and picked up the 
squirrel, which was dying, and the next moment 
gasped its last breath. This is a well-authenticated 
fact, and such instances have often been witnessed by 
others. 

Here we have the complete illustration of the devil 
as the lion and the serpent; and it is said that the 
lion has something' of the same spell-binding power, 
and that the victim dies painless and benumbed in his 
clutches when once seized. So the devil charms and 
benumbs and holds us spell-bound under temptation. 
I once knew a good Christian man seized with a strong 
temptation, the nature of which I need not mention. 
It so preyed upon him that his sleep fled from his eyes 
and his nervous system became weak and unstrung. 
He wasted in flesh, and it seemed sometimes as if he 
would lose his mind. He would come and tell me of 
his trial, and I prayed with him time and again; and 
I have known him to pray for hours and try, by the 
help of God, to banish the very thought from his soul. 
I have known him also to set out during the day and 
try to think only of Jesus by the force of mental en- 
ergy and will, and yet he would go back to his temp- 
tation under the spell and charm of Satan in spite, it 
seemed, of God. I wondered how it was that God 
did not help him in answer to prayer and in support 
of his every eflbrt to break his temptation; but so it 



POWER OF TEMPTATIOIS^ 293 

was, he did not. This went on for six months, and 
then for a year, and then for two years, and at hist he 
got the victory, at the risk, it seemed, of all he held 
dear on earth and in heaven. I saw him several times 
after the awful trial and after victory was achieved, 
and he wondered at his strange fascination, his mar- 
velous weakness, and at what seemed to be God's de- 
sertion of him, so long and helpless in the clutches of 
the lion. He said he could not, and I knoAV I did 
not, understand it, and I have thought it over and 
over a Inmdred times and wondered at the problem 
insoluble, unless God intended to punish him with his 
own weakness for a time, and then g-ive him a complete 
and final victory over an awful sin — which he did. 

The story of the African hunter and his lion has 
often occurred to me as I recollected this incident in 
the life of a struggling friend whom I knew to be sin- 
cere and earnest in his efforts to conquer, and whom 
I helped with all my might until the victory was 
gained. That man is a useful and happy servant of 
God to-day, and when I meet him we sometimes speak 
of the trial and rejoice together over the result. It 
takes fire-balls at last to run the lion of hell from his 
prey, spell-bound and held by his magnetism; and 
nothing short of the Holy Spirit in prayer can turn 
the fiery hand of God ag-ainst him. Sometimes we 
cannot say, " Get thee behind me, Satan," as Jesus 
did. Sometimes we cannot "resist" him, as James 
tells us, that he may "flee; " nor can we always run 
from him, as Joseph did. Occasionally, in the dark 
valley of temptation, we fight with Apollyon, like 
Bunyan's pilgrim, and well-nigh we seem to be slain 
by the tempter. How many a strong Christian has 
gotten into Doubting Castle under the grip of Giant 



294 POWER OF TEMPTATION. 

Despair! The difficulty lies in being unwatchfiil and 
unfruitful for long periods of time and in giving con- 
tinued indulgence to ease, passion, and appetite. "We 
shoot off our gun, we fail to keep the powder of grace 
dry and our gun loaded with faith and prayer; and it 
is in these conditions that the lion of hell comes upon 
us. It is only in Samson's and David's strength that 
we can slay the lion and the bear — in the youth and 
manhood of religion; but both Samson and David 
fell under the charms of Delilah and Bathsheba, and 
they were for a long while under the spell of Satan 
and the flesh. The old lion sat over them and glared 
and growled, paralyzed their strength and put out 
their eyes until God came to the rescue. So of Sol- 
omon, who died ingloriously ; and so of Peter, who 
warmed himself by the enemy's fire. The strongest, 
the best, the wisest, and the boldest man of God, like 
these respectively, when off their guard, when out of 
duty and place, when their gun is empty, may be 
seized by the artful enemy of souls; and the repent- 
ance of David and Peter, the inglorious close of Sam- 
son and Solomon are bitter admonitions to every care- 
less saint who lives or who may read these lines, 

I often think of the "nameless prophet," the "man 
of God " sent to Jeroboam at Bethel. What a vic- 
tory he gained as he broke down the altar of the 
calves, and as he healed the paralyzed hand of the 
king raised against him! God told him not to stop 
nor eat bread nor drink water in that place, but to 
go out another way than the way he came. He obeyed 
so far, but he had to stop close by on the way long 
enough to be overtaken by the false prophet and de- 
ceived back into the city; where, in disobedience to 
God, he ate bread and drank water, and received the 



POWER OF TEMPTATION. 295 

prophetic doom which sent him away with a heavy 
heart tow^ard 9, home he would never reach. A lion 
slew him on the way, and his sin was some strong- 
temptation to stop, to listen perhaps to the recital of 
his great triumph and wonderful works that day in 
Bethel by the passers-by. His temptation slew him; 
and while God in mercy always redeems his penitent 
children, he sometimes kills them as an example to 
disobedience, which ever makes us a prey to the lion, 
tQ the lion of temptation, which often becomes the 
lion of punishment and death. 

There is a lion across every man's path out of duty, 
off the King's highway of holiness. Bunyan's pil- 
grim saw a lion near the road he traveled, but he was 
told in his fear that the lion was chained and could 
not hurt him if he would move straight on and keep 
in the road. The path of holiness and duty has no 
lions across it, but they lie very close to it. Get off 
the path and you get into the clutches of the lion — 
the devil. On his knees, with his Bible in his hand, 
doing the will of God, the Christian is safe. He may 
be tempted and tried even here, but the tempter is on 
the side of the road, out in the bushes, and he cannot 
use his charms nor employ his forces to hurt us if we 
do not go off to meet him. The ball-room, the play- 
house, the saloon, the billiard-table, the horse-race, 
the cai"d-table, bad company — these are not on the 
pilgrim's pathway. These are the devil's side-shows, 
his allurements to piety and zeal, his deadly charms 
to holiness and activity; but they never hurt the 
Christian who "keeps in the middle of the road." 
He may sometimes want to get off and get into them, 
but the prayer of faith and the diligence of zeal will 
keep him pressing, like Paul, upon the course for the 



296 POWER OF TEMPTATION. 

prize of glory, looking neither to the right nor to the 
left, conferring not with flesh and blood, with every 
weight and the easily besetting sin laid aside, looking 
to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. The 
path of duty is the post of danger, but it is the way 
of absolute safety if we keep in it and press on it and 
run it out to the end. It is dangerous even to stop 
on it; for whosoever stops upon it will likely get into 
a parley with the devil, and get off of it. The serpent 
is always ready to charm the idle an(i unwary bird, 
but he never catches him upon the wing. 

Finally, let us learn the impressive lesson of the 
picture. Keep your powder dry and your gun load- 
ed, and when you are hunting for lions, or lions are 
hunting for you, don't be shooting at smaller game. 
Always go armed and loaded in the lion's country, 
and remember that the Christian is always in the land 
of the lion, the roaring lion of hell, going about seek- 
ing whom he may devour. He always knows when 
your gun is empty, and when your gun is unloaded 
and kept so you never know where the lion is. You 
are off guard, and you forget your old adversary, the 
devil; but he never forgets you, and is sure to catch 
you unarmed and unprotected. You may be sure of 
that, and you may be sure of another thing: he will 
eat you for breakfast if God does not run him off. 
Grant that this story may be a fable. If so, it has a 
moral. Keep your powder dry and your gun loaded; 
don't be shooting rabbits when lions are hunting you. 




THE FI¥E ASmiMBS. 

:HE accompanying cut exhibits five charac- 
ters, phrenologically caricatured, wliich 
are embraced in the asinine family. 
1. Tliere's the man of asinine conceit. 
His head, from a side view, is a little rhom- 
boid-shaped, sloping back to the rear of the 
coronal in the extraordinary development of the fac- 
ulty of self-esteem, which runs into conceit. His 
mouth has a cynical curvature, drawn first up and 
then down at the corners, indicating a doubtful realm 
between the sour and the sweet of disposition, and 
is in perfect accord with his bump of conceit. This 
faculty is so extraordinarily developed, and his char- 
acter and conduct in this line so marked and disgust- 
ing that everybody writes him down as an ass. !N"o 
matter what his other faculties are, or how nobly de- 
veloped, this bump of conceit will stick out of his 
character as it sticks above the back of his head. 
His long ears will show up. I heard a distinguished 
religious controversialist speak, not long since, and 
while he tried otherwise to display his infinite and 
voluminous learning, or dabbling in the same, he 
could not refrain from telling, or intimating repeat- 
edly, how learned he was and what a lot of ignora- 
muses belonged to the other side of the subject 

(299) 



300 THE riVE ASIXIISTES. 

discussed. I wondered at the " big I " and " little 
you " until I thought to look at his head, which was 
bald and well-proportioned, indicating a strong com- 
bination of the animal and the intellectual; a little 
sunken in the region of the moral, but awfully point- 
ed and prominent in the bump of self-esteem. I did 
not wonder any longer, for I saw that the distin- 
guished orator and debater could not help, or had 
not tried to help in time, his infirmity. He was 
challenged, not long since, to controversy on a cer- 
tain question, by a Mr. — . Speaking of the 

subject before a large audience — disdaining to take 
such small game — he said: "In your imagination be- 
hold the fice going out to meet a lion! The lion puts 
down his paw, and where is the fice? " The fice was 

Mr. , and the lion was himself ! 

Unquestionably, egotism is asinine. The student 
of Latin who wanted to show off before his profess- 
or, one morning, by a very pleasant way of saluta- 
tion, exclaimed, '•'■Ego sum asinusf" intending to say, 
^'Ego sum discipulus ! ^^ The ^^oung fellow, however, 
was right, and said truly, "I am an ass!" rather 
than, "I am a scholar!" and thousands of learned 
and unlearned conceits might well introduce them- 
selves to the world every day : " I am an ass! " There 
is one advantage conceit ever has, and that is what 
the world calls " cheek," and with fair talents and 
opportunities the braying ass may make headway 
against the world, but seldom against the flesh and 
the devil. He is never conscious of shame or embar- 
rassment, and will dare to do and tread where angels 
would blush and tremble. Self-conscious importance 
turns the world's ridicule into imagined commenda- 
tion, and he is never afllicted with pain or chagrin. 



THE FIVE ASII\TllsTES. 301 

no matter what his blunders or failures. In some re- 
spects the conceited donkey is to be envied; but his 
advantages are greatly counterbalanced by his disad- 
vantages before a thinking and discriminating world. 
In the end and in the main self-conceit proves a fail- 
ure and a blunder through life. 

2. The next figure represents laziness. It is the 
circular face and head, fat and chutfy, with the mouth 
curving upward — lethargic and phlegmatic, good- 
humored and happy, with no dread of famine and 
misfortune, with no ambition for the future, and with 
no remorse of conscience for the past. He is the 
dull, slow donkey you see beaten and braying along 
the street sometimes, and the force of blows, like the 
force of circumstances, have no effect upon him be- 
yond the present moment. All his faculties — intel- 
lectual, animal, or moral — have a rounded sameness 
of development, and he has no striking or prominent 
features of character which give him a salient force 
anywhere in the affairs of life. He may be a fair 
merchant, doctor, lawyer, school-teacher, or an intel- 
ligent farmer, but he is too indolent to succeed great- 
ly at any thing. I remember one such man in my 
boyhood. He was a merchant, but he sat and dreamed 
in front of his store — ^large, chuffy, and pleasant; 
could laugh at a joke, but was too lazy to tell one — 
and while he sat and dreamed of nothing other busi- 
ness men were taking his custom from the front door, 
while the chickens and pigs came in at the back 
door. He would get up lazily and wait on his cus- 
tomers, if the clerk was absent, and then resume his 
seat. I^othing troubled him but the flies in summer, 
and he was too stupid to fan these away except when 
they would get too numerous and annoying — like 



302 THE FIVE ASIIs'IlSrES. 

an ass with a tail, but too indifFerent to use it. A 
few years ago I went back to the city where he lives, 
and I saw this man again — grown old and gray, fat 
and chuffy still, seedy and poor — and he was sitting 
on a goods-box, smoking his pipe, apparently as hap- 
py and contented as he ever was. An earthquake or 
a cyclone might stir him to action, but no ordinary 
circumstance in life nor phenomenon of nature would 
have any effect upon his nerves. This man also has 
his advantages in his freedom from care and in his 
absence of ambition, but his disadvantages overcome 
his advantages in the great chances and glories of 
successful life. His very happiness is that of asi- 
nine content seen in the stupid donkey that browses 
about on sticks and grubs along the barren hill-side; 
and he almost fills a blank in the history and develop- 
ment of the world, which only gives him sitting- 
room. Of the two misfortunes, conceit and laziness, 
it is hard to decide upon a preference, but I believe 
there is more conscious joy and real worth in the' 
former than in the Latter. 

3. We come now to the third species of the asi- 
nine family — the kicker. He has an octagonal head 
and face — -front view — with broad and deep-set jaw- 
bones and a straight and compressed mouth. The 
faculties of combativeness and destructiveness are 
most prominently developed, and he is so overbal- 
anced in his make-up of belligerency and antagonism 
that he kicks upon all occasions and at all things, as 
his jaw-bones and mouth would indicate. He is a 
" striker," and he strikes square and often from the 
shoulder. In other words, he is an ass with heels, 
and he is always ready to let them fly. In his ridic- 
ulous opposition and readiness to kick at everybody 



THE riVE ASIiSnTsTES. 303 

and every thing he receives at the hands of the dis- 
cerning public the well-known title, ASS. I have 
known several such men in my life — and they may be 
found in almost every community — broad, thick- 
skinned, heavy-set, square-built fellows, having the 
characteristics and contour of this figure in the pict- 
ure. They are in politics, at the bar, among the doc- 
tors, at all business and general meetings, and oft- 
en in the Churches. They are great on controversy, 
and in their salient angularity and opposition to ev- 
ery thing no question or movement arises against 
which they do not kick. I once knew a deacon of 
this character in a certain Church. ISTo subject could 
be suggested, no enterprise could be proposed, no ac- 
tion taken in business, without his objections to it. 
He seemed to be born and bred in the objective case, 
and he died, after having butted and kicked against 
the walls of Zion for thirty years. He was a good 
man if you would let him have his way without let- 
ting him know you favored his course; but he would 
kick against himself when he found that he had 
kicked you into his way. He was an ass of the most 
asinine character, and he was as tough-hided and as 
stupid-minded, in his line, as the veriest donkey that 
ever brayed. I am told that in the Zoological Gar- 
den of Cincinnati they have the stuffed skins of a 
lion and an ass which had killed each other in a fight, 
the lion biting and clawing the ass to death, and the 
ass biting and kicking the lion to death in the same 
conflict. One would hardly think it, but if you im- 
agine for a moment that some asses cannot kick the 
life out of even a lion, you are mistaken. They can 
kick the life out of a Church, scatter the forces of a 
a political party, and turn a community upside down. 
20 



304: THE FIVE ASIXIXES. 

Beware of that species of the asinus belonging to 
the kicking family. All business and professional 
men know of him — shun him; and there is but one 
way to kill him. It takes a whole community to 
combine against him, and even then he may kick the 
life out of half of them before the job is finished. 
The kicking ass has power, and the very vigor and 
thoroughness of his character and calling make him 
friends who stick to him through fear or admiration 
of his extraordinary incorrigibility and enterprising 
pugnacity. 

4. Look now to the fourth figure in the illustra- 
tion. This is the stubborn ass — somewhat akin in 
propensity to the last, but not of so belligerent a dis- 
position. His face is the diamond — front view — with 
"long, wapper-jaws," his head running up in the re- 
gion of the moral faculties into a comb, lilce the roof 
of a house; his cheek-bones very high, his mouth 
concaved downward; thin-skinned, sensitive, and 
sour. He is a sullen, determined ass, ever set back 
upon his haunches, and while he does not kick much, 
he pulls against the post until the lines or his neck 
breaks, or the post pulls up. His faculty of firmness 
runs into inordinate stubbornness by inordinate and 
abnormal development and protuberance, and if once 
he sets his head, right or wrong, from conviction or 
prejudice, from pride or principle, nothing short of 
divine power can change him. Even when convinced 
of wrong, he will not alter. The angel Gabriel 
would have no influence over him. Tears, groans, 
cries, supplications, sufferings — all are vain to move 
him when once his head is set against you, right or 
wrong. I once knew an old sister whose head and 
face were made on this order. She was a member of 



THE FIVE ASININES, 305 

the Church to which 1 preached, and - she was a good 
woman so long as things went her way, but when you 
crossed the old lady's path she began to pull against 
you. On one occasion she invited a brother minis- 
ter and myself to supper, with a view of having us 
talk with her husband, who was an unconverted 
man. After supper we got into a conversation, and 
the husband, being a shrewd, jolly fellow, diverted 
conversation in various ways in order to avoid any 
thing seriously touching religion. " Somehow we got 
into a discussion of the dog, and my friend, being 
something of a naturalist, gave a humorous idea of 
the dog's tail being his rudder, which enabled him 
to walk a log, and without which he could not walk 
the log at all. This disgusted the old lady Avitli that 
preacher, and there was no argument nor persuasion 
after that by which she could ever be led to forgive 
him or hear him preach again. I came near being ru- 
ined to her on the same occasion myself; and several 
times, in other matters, I had to avoid trouble by 
not pulling against her. So I have experienced the 
same thing Avith other good men and women thus 
abnormally developed; I have seen life-long aliena- 
tions and feuds and disasters in families and com- 
munities at the hands of stubborn, unreasonable, and 
unyielding people. Stubbornness seldom or never 
forgives; and if it does, it never forgets. It is al- 
most impossible to see how such dispositions ever 
get converted, or how they ever get to heaven. 

5. Lastly, I come to the fool ass. He has the oval 
face — front view; his forehead is low and his eyes 
are far up on his sloping brow; his mouth is a broad 
medium between the straight and the curved, and 
his lips are thick and heavy, and he has more beef in 



306 THE FIVE ASIJSHNES. 

his face than brains in his leather head. He nsnally 
makes himself an ass for the want of sense, and 
though sometimes slouchy and unkempt, he is gen- 
erally seen in the shape of a dude. He is the fellow 
with a one-eye glass, dressed in the latest style of 
his kind, sporting his cane from the middle, and 
walking in all the lofty pomp and swell of his sense- 
less dignity. He shows the white of his soulless eyes 
from below, glancing upward into nothingness, and 
his arms and his knees go akimbo, sans custom, sans 
sense, sans nature. He cuts a big figure in society 
on account of his clothes or his father's bank 
account; but he is only admired by those of his 
kind. He is a fool and an ass — always cutting an 
asinine figure and letting off his asinine mouth in 
the world ; and he is the sport and the ridicule of all 
sensible people. One of them got aboard a Lon- 
don train of cars going to Liverpool. He wondered 
that everybody did not know him — Mr. John Brown, 
commercial traveler from London! He was smoking 
a cigar when a lady got aboard. She showed that 
she was offended, but could not get out of the little 
coach. "Ah! " said he, "I'm sorry; but do you not 
know me?" "I^o, sir!" was the short reply. "I 
am Mr. John Brown, commercial traveler from Lon- 
don." After awhile two other ladies got aboard, and 
they did not seem to notice Mr. Brown. He en- 
deavored to introduce a conversation, but the ladies 
remained quiet. "Well, ah! do you know me? I 
am Mr. John Brown, commercial traveler from Lon- 
don!" Shortly the train passed a field where three 
donkeys were grazing. "Ah! what are those? " asks 
Mr. Brown. One of the ladies quickly replied: 
" Commercial travelers from London! " They hit 



THE FIVE ASi:Nri]SrES. 307 

the nail on the head, and Mr. Brown was silently in- 
dignant, having sense enough to see the point when 
he was indirectly called an ass. All asses are fools 
in some sense, but it is dreadful to be an ass for the 
want of sense. We see these asses everywhere — in 
society, in the legislature, in politics, in business, 
and sometimes in the pulpit — always letting off their 
mouths in the wi'ong place, and ever cutting antics 
at which everybody but the ass blushes. You will 
generally find him in the likeness of the picture I 
have drawn of him. 

But I must bid adieu to the long-eared family. 
There are other specimens of the species, but I have 
said more than enough in these sketches to give a 
hint to those not mentioned. The unfortunate part 
of it is that the donkey seldom or never sees himself 
as. others see him, and cannot be made often to so see 
himself. Stupidity is the nature of the beast, and 
the cudgel, the only instrument by which he can be 
impressed, is soon forgotten. JN'evertheless, a little 
education of this character may be of service to the 
young — the " wild asses' colts " — who may come across 
these lines. There is no hope for the old thorough- 
breds. Train up the young asses in the way they 
should go, and when older grown they will not do as 
asses do. 



Strain out a 6mt. Swallow a Gamel. 




^^ERE is another phase of hypocrisy — one of 
the chief characteristics of the Pharisees. 
In another pictiire we see the hypocrite 
with a beam in his own eye and picking a 
mote out of his brother's eye. This was an il- 
lustration of optical surgery at the hands of a 
hypocrite, but now we come to a gastronomic feat 
worthy of the most gigantic gormandizer. He strains 
out a gnat and swallows a camel, which finds com- 
fortable quarters in his capacious maw. 

Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees : " Woe unto 
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut 
up the kingdom of heaven against men: for je nei- 
ther go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are 
entering to go in. AYoe unto you, scribes and Phar- 
isees, hypocrites ! for ye devour widows' houses, and 
for a pretense make long prayers : therefore ye shall re- 
ceive the greater damnation. "Woe unto you, scribes 
and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye comiDass sea and 
land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye 
make him twofold more the child of hell than your- 
selves. . . . Woe unto you, scribes and Phari- 
sees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise 
and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters 
of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought 
(308) 














B • ■, ■■ ■■ ...■■,■• I'.V-'- '■■'.' "."(■■■■H 



STEAIlSr OUT A GMSTAT, SWALLOW A CAMEL, 311 

ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. 
Ye blind guides, which strain out a gnat, and swallow a 
camel. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypo- 
crites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of 
the platter, but within they are full of extortion and 
excess. . . , Woe unto you, scribes and Phari- 
sees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepul- 
chers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but 
within are full of dead men's bones and of all unclean- 
ness." 

This is the most terrible arraignment ever made of 
a class of people occupying- so high a position of 
honor and respectability in religion, society, or gov- 
ernment. In fact, nothing worse could have been 
said of any other class of men in any other position. 
Shutting up God's kingdom against those who would 
willingly enter, devouring the substance of widows, 
turning the hard-made proselyte into a worse devil 
than themselves, leaving undone the weightier matters 
of the law, full of extortion and excess, whited sepul- 
chers full of rottenness and dead men's bones! 
What a terrible catalogue of crimes, and what an 
awful series of denunciations in detail! And yet 
these scribes and Pharisees were the most scrupu- 
lous, punctilious, and exact observers of all the forms 
and ceremonies of religion. They were the most zeal- 
ously devoted of all people to their creed, as such; so 
much so that they would compass land and sea to 
make one proselyte to it. They would pay tithes of 
mint, anise, and cummin, the smallest and most insig- 
nificant shrubs of the garden. 

If one of them touched a heathen in the market- 
place, he would wash himself all over as defiled. It is 
said that if one of them had drawn his handkerchief to 



312 STRAIN OUT A GjSTAT, SWALLOW A CAMEL. 

wipe his face at the moment the Sabbath entered the 
lists of the week he Avould not even so much as touch 
his face or put it back in his pocket until the Sabbath 
was past. iS'ever Avere there such extremes of char- 
acter and conduct recorded in men. If they prayed, 
it was upon the house-tops to be seen of men; and if 
they gave alms, they blew a trumpet to be heard of 
men. Their religion was the very refinement of self- 
righteousness and hypocrisy, and they regarded God 
as under obligations to them for being better than 
other men, for paying tithes of all they possessed, 
while their pride and ambition was to enjoy the praise 
of men, their only reward. They were guilty of the 
most depraved and corrupt lives, and yet they were 
exceedingly exact and particular in the doing of lit- 
tle things. Justice, mercy, faith, love, holiness — all 
these they ignored and trampled under foot; but they 
would pay tithes of the grass which grew in their 
yards. They were grand in doing little things for 
good, but they were monstrous in doing big things 
for evil. Their fathers could murder God's prophets, 
and they would build sepulchers for them. They 
strained out a gnat, and swallowed a camel. . This is 
the awful picture. Truly did Johnson say, " Hypoc- 
risy is the necessary burden of villainy ; " and nowhere 
does his proposition find such startling illustration as 
in the scribes and Pharisees. Perhaps nothing in 
modern times, in no age of the world, ever equaled or 
surpassed their hypocrisy; but we often see chips from 
that original block in every phase and grade of socie- 
ty, even in the Churches of Jesus Christ. We find 
men and women scrupulous about little things, yet 
negligent of weightier matters. There is '' the devil 
at home and the saint abroad." How exquisitely po- 



STRAIJN" OUT A GXAT, SWALLOW A CAMEL. 313 

lite and mincing at your table! but at home she 
munches and champs and eats with her fingers; and 
so do " dear George and the children." Every thing is 
" darling " and " precious " to the visitor or the stran- 
ger, but when the curtain falls or the screen closes, 
the silvery veil of Mokanna is oflP, and the devil is at 
home. The children are spanked and slapped about, 
and the little ones, trained to hypocritical politeness 
in public, quarrel and fight and bawl, among each 
other. " Dear " George " cusses " reverently and sys- 
tematically when angered, and " precious " Lillie 
scolds and scowls and cries, and is always going home 
to her father, IN'othing goes light at home half the 
time, and often the sacred place is but a bedlam of an 
uproar; yet how deliciously sweet every thing is at 
church or at the party or on the cars! A'Vhat an ele- 
gant and amiable family they are! and one would 
think the honey-moon had never waned, but waxed, 
ever since the wedding-day. 

Hundreds of families, more or less, are little schools 
of educated hypocrites — a fact which would never be 
knoAvn but for the servants and the children, who 
all agree sometimes tell the truth. Quite often it is 
only one of the couple who is the devil at home and 
the saint abroad — oftenest the man. He is a tyrant, 
a cold, sullen bear, who seldom speaks a kind word 
to wife or children, reads the newspaper and smokes 
his cigar when he stays; or, when home becomes a 
bore, goes to the club or elsewhere. He makes a lit- 
tle hell of the family abode, for it is not a " home " 
when something goes wrong. A button off, a string 
broke, a paper misplaced, the least disconcerted, he 
breaks forth in passionate ebullitions; and the atmos- 
phere becomes lurid and sulphuric with profanity and 



314 STEAIlSr OtfT A GISTAT, SWALLOW A CAMEL. 

abuse, and yet abroad he talks about his " darling 
wife" and " little jewels." 

Sometimes it is the wife who is the termagant, and 
the poor, hen-pecked husband lives in the murky realm 
of scowls, scolds, and lectures. If he is patient and 
manly, or if he is submissive and lamb-like, the world 
never knows it; but when she swings out upon the 
arm of her " precious " you would imagine she was an 
angel guardian to her loving lord. In any event, such 
people are externally precise and punctilious in the 
little amenities and etiquette of life, while the weight- 
ier matters of purity, politeness, and happiness of 
home are unknown. They strain at gnats and swal- 
low camels. Sometimes such families make a pre- 
tense of religion. ]^ot iinfrequently they read the 
Bible and hold family prayer. !N^ot long since a fa- 
ther got mad at one of the children right around the 
family altar, and cuffed its jaws. The wife got mad, 
and slapped him. He threw the Bible at her, and 
would have knocked her down. All was smiling and 
sweet, however, next Sunday morning at church, and 
the family pew was apparently full of song, praise, 
devotion, and attention. 

Again, there is old Deacon Jones. He sits in the 
"Amen corner," sings with a loud bass voice, leads 
in the prayer-meeting, and is prominent in all the bus- 
iness affairs of the congregation. He is worth a hun- 
dred thousand dollars, and he gives liberally to the 
cause, and with a fiery zeal he is up in all the ortho- 
dox principles and practices of the denomination. He 
is exceedinglj" scrupulous, exact, and nice about every 
thing in the house of God. He would send a sinner 
to perdition for spitting on the carpet, and if he knew 
that his pastor smoked a cigar in his study he would 



STEAIISr OUT A GXAT, SWALLOW A CAMEL. 315 

prefer charges against him and dismiss him from the 
pulpit. He would not dance or go to the theater or 
play cards for all the world, and on Sunday he is at 
home all day or at church, engaged in religious devo- 
tion and service. Deacon Jones is ever austere and 
supercilious, and without condescension. External- 
ly he is in every respect a Pharisee; but he is a law- 
yer, doctor, merchant, manufacturer, broker, or banker, 
as the case may be. Squire Jones took the case of a 
poor woman who sued for a claim, and he got about 
all the widow had before the delayed case got through. 
Dr. Jones attended the case of a poor, sick family, 
and because they did not have the fee to pay him be- 
fore he left the house he refused to take the case. 
Merchant Jones has been known to "sand his sugar" 
or "goose his cotton." Manufacturer Jones pays 
poor women a dying pittance for making clothes. 
Banker Jones shaves notes and grinds a needy friend 
with exorbitant usury. 

He strains out gnats every day, and gulps down 
camels, and nobody who knows him has any confi- 
dence in him; but he has money and position and re- 
spectability thereby in Church and community. He 
is a valuable citizen, a punctilious Church-member, 
a social and religious ornament, and all the talk and 
scandal in the world about his meanness goes for noth- 
ing. You say this is a strained and imaginary case ; 
but I reply that I have known a number of such men, 
and everybody else has seen them in almost every 
neighborhood and community. They shout and cry 
"Amen! " in the Methodist Church; they look elderly 
and solemnly awful in the Presbyterian Church ; they 
blow and bulldoze in the Baptist Church; they read 
the service among the Episcopalians; they run whisky- 



316 STRAIN OUT A GISTAT, SWALLOW A CAMEL. 

saloons among the Catholics. They are everywhere, 
the same in all denominations and among all creeds; 
and they are especially the outgrowth of a loose, pop- 
ular, wealthy, and worldly-seeking ecclesiasticism. 
They always appear when there is no persecution, 
when the Church becomes a profitable investment, and 
when religion walks in golden slippers. In times that 
try men's souls, when the cross becomes the martyr's 
symbol, the Pharisee seldom appears, except in the 
honest delusion of self- righteousness. 

Sometimes we find the Pharisee among the preach- 
ers and among the good sisters in the Church; but 
this is rare, for the lack of opportunity to play the 
dishonest game of hypocrisy. 1 knew one good old 
sister who could shout, get happy, sing, and pray in 
public, especially when the revival was on. She was 
charitable, made a good visitor to the poor and the 
sick, and she had a perfect horror of the little sins 
and foibles of the young people. iRevertheless, she 
would jew a negro an hour for the difference of a 
nickel in the purchase of a load of wood or a barrel 
of 23otatoes; and she would sell off old clothes or fur- 
niture to the darkies at exorbitant prices. Her rule 
of life was to get all she could for as near nothing as 
possible, and to get for almost nothing double its value. 
Worse than this, she would talk about her neighbors, 
quiz and draw from the servants the secrets of her 
friends, and she could almost tell what you had for 
breakfast every morning. She was scrupulously hon- 
est in telling the truth, but she was ever dead to find 
out something scandalous and keep it going. There 
never was a fuss in the community about Avhich she 
did not know every thing, and but few at the bottom 
of which she was not the cause. She was to all ap- 



STRAIJSr OUT A GNAT, SWALLOW A CAMEL. 317 

pearances a good woman, and yet she was a hypocrite 
of the deepest dye. She religiously strained out a 
gnat every hour, but she was perpetually swallowing 
the devil's camel. 

According to Pollok it seems that this sin is par- 
ticularly characteristic of an age of wealth and cult- 
ure, so favorable to the development of Pharisaism 
under every phase and form. Listen to the poet's de- 
scriptive characterization: 

It was witlial a highly polished age, 
And scrupulous in ceremonious rite, 
When stranger stranger met upon the way 
First each to each bowed most respectfully. 
And large profession made of humble service. 
And then the stranger took the other's purse; 
And he that stabbed his neighbor to the heart 
Stabbed him politely, and returned the blade, 
Eeeking into its sheath, with graceful air. 

JSTever was there a more favorable period to hypoc- 
risy, especially in the Churches, than the present age. 
Whenever religion walks in golden sli^Dpers, becomes 
popular and wealthy, fashionable and ^Dowerful, then 
multitudes seek it for the worldly benefits it may con- 
fer. They hunt for the loaves and fishes where the 
multitudes get fed, and hence hypocrisy under every 
form is multiplied. Luxury, riches, and culture re- 
fine; but, without virtue and purity, they often be- 
come the refinement of iniquity under the plausible 
guise of religion. Like the Jews in the height of 
their refinement and culture, we tend to Pharisaism 
in the nature of things ; and to-day many of our most 
splendid sinners are in the Churches. It has often 
been remarked here in IN'ashville, as in other cities, 
that the cause of religion is depreciated and despised 
by many because of the prominence and power of rot- 



c 
318 STRAIN OUT A GXAT, SWALLOW A CAMEL. 

ten Church-members occupying" front seats and in- 
fluential position, retained and fostered because of 
their money, liberality, and social power. There are 
Church-members of this character whose private lives 
would disgrace a worldling of less influential position, 
and yet they are hiding behind the mask of public 
hypocrisy, posing as sheep, but they are wolves in 
sheep's clothing in the flock of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
However, this is another phase of Pharisaism and hy- 
pocrisy; and, like the mote-hunter and the gnat-strain- 
er and the camel-swallower, should be treated under 
a separate head. So of the trumpet-blower, the sanc- 
timonious faster, the house-top prayer, and a host of 
others too numerous to mention. 

In many instances of our day, however, a man does 
not have to play the hypocrite to remain among God's 
people. Some of our Churches are so loose in disci- 
pline, so anxious to count noses, so greedy for wealth 
and social power, that one need not act the hypocrite 
of any character if he is liberal, influential, and hon 
ton. He can do just as he pleases without masking 
his wickedness, and the Church, as such, is nearer the 
hypocrite than the indulged and petted member. 
Many of our preachers now openly and boldly pro- 
claim that no man should ever be excluded from the 
Church unless he gets into the penitentiary, or should 
be hanged for murder or some other diabolical crime. 
Too late then. 




21 




THE LITTLE FOXES. 

i^HIS picture presents the true Yine, represent- 
^^^ ing Christ, with its fruitful branches, rep- 
" resenting Christians; and the fruit of 
these branches is being destroyed and the 
vines devastated by the little foxes. Solomon 
said: " Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil 
the vines : for our vines have tender grapes^ Every Chris- 
tian is regarded as a branch, a little vine in the true 
Yine, bearing fruit unto God; and every small sin is 
a little fox which spoils the branches by tearing them 
apart and by devouring the grapes, a fruit of which . 
the fox is esiDecially fond. 

It is not the wolf in sheep's clothing, not the howl- 
ing jackal, not the hyena nor the tiger of monstrous 
sins which are here S3aiil*Dlized. JSTot even the old 
and wily fox, like Plerod, whom Jesus so character- 
ized; but the little foxes, the small sins, are evidently 
meant. However small or young these little foxes, or 
sins, may be, they have the vulpine nature and pecul- 
iarities about them. In other words, they are cun- 
ning, and they come upon us slyly and unexpectedly, 
and they are ravaging and destroying our vines before 
we are aware of it. According to the figure, the big 
foxes would not come until the little foxes first got 
among the branches. In fact, these same little foxes 

(321) 



322 



THE LITTLE EOXES. 



grow and fatten into big foxes as they continue to 
feed upon " our vines," and it does not take them long 
to mature to full size. The little sin well fed and 
long nourished outgrows any other beast in the 
soul's menagerie, and it is the hardest of them all 
to kill when it gets grown. 

Let us now examine a few of these little foxes, 
which so rapidly and surely become big ones : 

Take profanity. A boy does not often begin with 
downright swearing in the name of God. He shud- 
ders at a blasphemous oath the first time he hears it, 
if he has been tenderly and properly trained, and he 
begins with little " by-words," which gradually swell 
and fill out to full and rounded profanity. Sometimes 
these diminutive oaths in embryo run for a long time 
before the amateur swearer becomes sufficiently hard- 
ened to advance in sacrilege, and then he is prepared 
to employ stronger and more comprehensive terms in 
the line of his profane development. He gets to where 
he can lightly take the name of " Jesus Christ " and 
of " God," and when he can add oh the adjuncts of 
" damn " and " devil " and " hell " without a shudder 
of compunction he has acquired at last the qualifica- 
tions of a first-class blasphemer. The little fox, " by- 
word," becomes the great, big fox of " curse and 
swear" in the name of God; and it is sometimes the 
case that we hear ten-year-old boys on the streets 
belching and vomiting out blackguard vulgarity and 
the most glaring and daring profanity. 

Take lying. It seems almost natural for people to 
lie; but there are thousands of children who at first 
would stand horrified at the idea of telling a false- 
hood. The well-trained little conscience revolts at 
the suggestion; but it does not take long, with bad 



THE LITTLE EOXES. 323 

company and ill advice, to taint and contaminate the 
very best of children. They see other children do 
wrong and lie, and nnless so kept as to remain dis- 
gusted at their conduct they will soon venture to im- 
itate by evasion or dodging the truth — a lesson easily 
learned and a habit readily formed. The little " white 
lie" becomes the progenitor of the big black lie; and 
by the sure and steady process of growth in evil the 
purest young heart, the sweetest young lips will be- 
come foul and filthy with the hideous and polluted 
vice of lying. Under evil training and association 
the little fox will not be long in becoming a bold and 
barefaced falsifier. The little circular dodge is soon 
reduced to the big square lie. The little evasive shift 
soon takes the clear, open forthright into the broad, 
plain boulevard of shameless, blushless prevarication. 
Very small children in almost every family and Sun- 
day-school are often very big liars ; and the founda- 
tion of every crooked, perverse, and untoward career 
is thus laid in falsehood, amid the rose-beds of once 
innocent and happy childhood. 

Take stealing. With many children to touch what 
is not their own would be like touching a hot iron. 
They have been trained to truth, honesty, and purity 
of life; and yet many a thief is manufactured out of 
just such material. " Evil communications corrupt 
good manners," and many a noble little spirit has been 
led by bad company to unlearn the well-taught differ- 
ence between " mine and thine." The little boy learns 
from others to take his mother's sugar, to pick the 
apples from a neighbor's tree, to purloin his father's 
pennies — all under the conception that it is not much 
harm and that other boys do likewise. The little fox 
of petty theft becomes the big fox of felonious rob- 



324 THE LITTLE FOXES. 

bery after awhile. Larceny from the person runs into 
burglary, and from the jail the convict goes to the 
penitentiary, and perhaps at last to the gibbet for mur- 
dering his neighbor for gold. Perhaps the murderer 
was once an innocent boy, who thought it not a great 
wrong one day to take a pin which he felt was no 
loss to the owner and a gain of little consequence to 
himself. The principle which steals a pin or a nickel 
is the same which takes a million, and the culminating 
corruption which finally dethrones honor and life be- 
gins in the very least and first sin which started the 
ever widening and deepening stream of vice and crime. 
Destruction begins in valuing sin according to the 
quantity of damage, and not according to the quality of 
crime. Take care of the little fox of false valuation 
according to the amount and not the essence of wrong. 
From this little fox of principle and practice springs 
the big fox of result and ruin. 

Take your temper. What a tempest or a tornado it 
gets to be with some people! "Was it always so? JSTot 
with every one. How did it reach such a rash and 
wrathful pitch in life? The little foxes did it. That 
mother was once a sweet and amiable young lady. 
The little vexations and ills of life have been allowed 
to aggravate her into a termagant. The children, the 
cooking- stove, the house-cleaning, the odds and ends 
of making and mending, the ceaseless round of duties 
and toils in which a woman's work is never done, in- 
stead of inuring to patience and fortitude by culture 
and forbearance, have developed all that was opposite 
and salient in her soul, l^ow she is a terror to her- 
self, to her family, and to her neighbors. She cannot 
brook opposition, obstacle, or inconvenience, much 
less affront or variance; and she is sensitive, nervous, 



THE LITTLE FOXES. 325 

impatient, resentful, and restless in the discharge of 
every duty and relationship she sustains. Having 
given way by degrees to an evil temper until it has 
supreme dominion over her body, mind, and soul, she 
is as much the wreck of bad habit as the drunkard or 
the opium-eater. Her little foxes have all become 
grown-up jackals, and although she professes religion 
and belongs to the Church, the grace of God seems 
scarcely able to help her, especially as she does not 
help the grace of God to help her temper. So have I 
seen teachers and preachers, business and profession- 
al men, whose hot and impatient tempers have lost 
them finally all control of themselves or of others. 
He that does not possess his soul in patience and equa- 
nimity will not be long in losing possession of every 
thing else. 

Take your tongue^ that unruly member of which 
James warns us. AYith some people it is turned loose 
at both ends, and plays upon a pivot in the middle, as 
elastic as India rubber and as drastic as aloes. They 
have become habituated to talk fiercely or recklessly 
about every thing and everybody, and scandal and 
slander and exaggeration and blasphemy are the big 
foxes which have at last developed from the tittle- 
tattle of the little gossip of early days. The small 
whispers of evil thoughts and imaginations, once char- 
ily and warily suffered to enter the mind about per- 
sons and things, have grown to the whirlwind of 
wholesale and retail slaughter Upon every thing and 
everybody in the way of their linguistic cyclone. 
The innuendo has become the sharp, two-edged sword 
of loud and bitter vituperation and contumely, cut- 
ting asunder soul and body and piercing betwixt the 
joints and marrow of your reputation and character; 



326 THE LITTLE FOXES. 

and so of every principle and practice, ideal or con- 
ception, characteristic or virtue which distinguishes 
neighbor or society or business in conflict with those 
who have cultivated this big, talking fox which rav- 
ages the vines of our peace and prosperity in almost 
every community, Alas for the unruly and uncon- 
trollable tongue of many people ! Their voice is like 
. the sound of many w^aters, and like a flood of waters 
their words often overwhelm us with griefs and mis- 
eries untold. The most provoking, aggravating, vex- 
atious, all-fired, and ring-fired curse a man must en- 
dure is a well-trained and fully developed tongue in 
the mouth of a full-fledged, malignant persecutor. 

In a thousand ways the little foxes spoil the vines 
with us all. The little sins ruin our lives. The " bees " 
worried David more than the " bulls of Bashan; " and 
it is in these little vexations, as well as little sins of 
life, that we oftenest allow ourselves overcome. Many 
a man who is able to bear a great misfortune or resist 
a great sin or endure a great provocation cannot sus- 
tain a little disaster, overcome a little temptation, or 
stand a small affront, especially when these little ills 
come in a multitudinous form. It is the moth that 
destroys the bee-hive, not the martin that catches the 
bees. It is the craw-fish which oftenest undermines 
the levee, not the flood which sweeps over it. An in- 
finitesimal insect has been discovered in Germany 
which eats out the iron rails upon the track and de- 
stroys them more effectually than the friction of the 
mighty engines and trains which run over them. We 
guard more particularly and are better prepared to 
meet the great difficulties and sins of life; but the 
little ones, like an army of ants, may be all through 
your house before you know it; and an army of ants 



THE LITTLE EOXES. 327 

in your house is harder to destroy than a lion at your 
door. You can make a fence so strong and high as 
to keep your neighbor's bull out of your corn-field, 
and the prudent farmer always does this; but the mole 
may trace your rows of young corn and kill your crop 
in a night. So may the crows and the blackbirds in a 
day. We look out for big foxes and provide against 
them if we are prudent men and women, but we too 
seldom watch for the little ones until it is too late. 
Our little sins come upon us unawares, and tear our 
vines before we recognize their presence; and, worse 
than all, we so neglect their appearance or so ignore 
their growth and power that we become the prey of 
the full-grown brood before we are concerned about 
our condition. " Take care of the nickels, and the 
dollars w^ill take care of themselves; " and what is 
true of money is true of virtues. Keep down the lit- 
tle sprouts of sin, and there will be no trees to cut 
down when they have grown big and old and hard. 

Finally, let me say that the little foxes spoil our 
vines very easily, because " our grapes are tender 
grapes." Therefore we should be more on the alert 
to take them when " little," and before the work of 
devastation begins. The grape is a very tender fruit, 
easily spoiled at best; but the grapes of the Christian 
vine are the tenderest ever grown. ]N"othing is so easily 
soiled as Christian reputation or character, and noth- 
ing is so readily tainted and poisoned as Christian 
purity and piety. All other reputation and character 
can stand a greater shock, in the world's eyes at least; 
and all oth^r virtue or integrity may stand a greater 
strain or a fouler touch under the pressure of tempta- 
tion or contamination unless it be the good name and 
the chastity of a woman. 



328 THE LITTLE POXES. 

^Nothing, according to human standards, is so deli- 
cate and spotless as religion, especially the Christian 
religion; and by reason of our weak and vile natures, 
our susceptibility to doubt and declension, our subjec- 
tion to Satanic art and delusion, our every-day contact 
with worldliness and temptation, our purity and piety 
are most readily polluted and blighted; and when we 
are so blackened and corrupted we are the most con- 
spicuous and the w^orst hurt of all other creatures. 
The wdiiter the angel's wing the more easily spotted. 
The holier and higher Lucifer was before he fell the 
blacker and fouler he seems and is in his degradation. 
How easily, apparently, one little sin overthrew the 
stainless Adam and Eve! and what woe and wicked- 
ness have followed! The loftier the being and the 
whiter he is the lower his fall and the blacker his 
character, and the greater are the consequences to 
him and to others. The purer and holier the heart 
the more delicate the touch needed to stain it and be- 
foul it; and hence our vines are said to bear very 
"tender grapes." Hence the great importance too of 
keeping out the little foxes that spoil the vines. In 
order to this we should kill down every outcropping 
of unbelief, of infidelity, of passion, and appetite. 
Kill this brood of vipers while they are little, and 
don't Avait for the little brood to grow up and breed 
other broods, as is too often the case. " Take us the 
foxes, the little foxes that spoil our vines, for ovir vines 
hay e tender grapes," O for the cultivation of that 
early, that constant and assiduous piety which keeps 
down the little sins, and which in the course of relig- 
ious development inures to that peace and prosperity 
which flow like a river and wdiich are never marred 
by the touch of great transgressions or misfortunes! 



A FIGHT WITH eO/iSCIENGE 

IN FOUR ACTS. 




^HE first picture in this sketch represents a 
man on the eve of doing sometliing wrong 
and determined in his course. He is plot- 
ting some sclieme of meanness or measure of 
villainy for which he has not the consent of his 
conscience. It is a matter of no difference 
here yi^hat that scheme or measure is. It may be 
that he is devising a great plan to swindle his fel- 
low-man — for instance, some patent medicine discov- 
ery or invention. He may be designing to gratify 
some base joassion, or to debauch himself by debas- 
ing appetite. Perhaps he is plotting robbery, mur- 
der, or seduction. Whatever his purpose, he is bent 
on evil just the same; and in the first act, or picture^ 
we discover him in debate with his better angel — his 
conscience. Dallying in the lap of sin, he is parley- 
ing with his conscience, and the controversy seems 
hot and furious. This is always the case when con- 
science gets the better of the argument with a man 
bent on evil, guided by evil impulses, or misjudged 
purposes. The first step in vice or crime is always 
slow, cautious, hesitating, and full of trepidation, 
and so in every step of a man with conscientious 
scruples and convictions; but when his purpose is 

(331) 



332 A FIGHT WITH co:nscience. 

made up, and his impulses are strong, he cannot x^ro- 
ceed without a fierce controversy with his inner and 
better nature. So you see the man debating with his 
conscience in the first picture. 

In the second act, or picture, you discover that 
conscience has knocked him down, tumbled him 
heels up and head under, and she is proceeding to 
pommel him into a virtuous frame, as a school-ma'am 
does a refractory boy. Ordinarily she succeeds, or 
often does; but if the man is infatuated and deter- 
mined upon his course, he resists her lashing admo- 
nitions. He kicks while conscience gets the first 
blood, and though knocked down and stunned for 
the moment, he recovers, from his collapse with re- 
doubled purpose and fury. It isn't every fellow who 
gets knocked down first who gets whipped, albeit the 
advantage is great to the first slugger. Opposition 
and violence arouse some men to the full measure of 
their strength and resistance, and this is about the 
case with a man fascinated with a vicious purpose 
and bent on evil in spite of conscientious convic- 
tions and compunctions which smite him to the 
contrary. He may halt and parley, and bend like the 
sapling to the gale for the moment, but he springs 
back with elasticity farther in the other direction 
than before. 

Thus we see him in the third act, or picture. He 
has risen, like Roderic Dhu, springing like a tiger 
at the throat of Fitz- James; but unfortunately the 
cudgel of conscience has not done the previous work 
of Fitz-James's blade, and the madman, bent on evil,' 
does not relax his nerveless and exhausted grasp 
from the throat of his combatant, as Eoderic Dhu 
did, faint from loss of blood. He has risen to his 



A I^IGHT AVITII COIS^SCIEXCE. 335 

feet with all the force of renewed and redoubled 
energy, and he proceeds to choke his conscience 
into submission. While flat of his back he ma- 
tured a more violent determination, and rallying 
Avith all the venom and fury of his temptation, he 
makes a vigorous onset and takes his better angel 
by the throat. He throttles conviction, represses 
consideration, suppresses caution, and this point 
in victory achieved, he has less trouble in finally 
choking down all resistance or compunction of the 
moral sense. Had he felt, when downed at the first 
"blow, no disposition to debate or fight, then con- 
science would have been triumphant over his will, 
and his ^Dassions and purposes would have subsided 
and relaxed, but it is just at this point that passion 
and purpose ahvays rally, if permitted, and choke the 
life out of God's angel monitor of the soul. Some- 
times the conscience gets the better of the man by 
argument; but if argument fails by milder measures, 
if blows fail by severer means, and the stricken vic- 
tim rallies, she is likely to share the fate of tempora- 
ry if not permanent suppression, as is sometimes the 
fatal result. Conscience is always a logical and sol- 
id reasoner, and where reason ends her intuitions are 
always infallible. How much better at the outset to 
listen to her voice! and when she lifts her lash upon 
us how much better to submit to her chastisement! 
Her healing stripes are precious to the heart, if pas- 
sively received; and when she knocks us down with 
her blows of conviction and compunction, how dread- 
ful is the obduracy and the turpitude which can re- 
cover, and take her by the throat! Alas! how many 
are ruined right here at this fatal point in their fight 
with conscience! 
22 



336 



A FIGHT WITH COJSTSCIElSrCE. 



In the fourth and last act we find the determined 
and incorrigible slayer of his conscience successful 
and triumphant in his fatal course. He has carried 
his purpose; and passion, appetite, pride, ambition — 
whatever it is — dominates his Avill and revels supreme 
in his soul. For the time being, and for the present 
purpose at least, he has choked his better angel 
speechless, got her down, put his foot upon her bo- 
som, and is stamping the very life out of her. He is 
not only bent upon carrying his point, but he is de- 
termined to hush her voice and paralyze her latent 
energies. He began by a heated dialogue with her, 
and she got the better of the argument. More heat- 
ed still, insulted and injured conscience knocked him 
down by momentary conviction and shame. Deter- 
mined not to be outdone and thwarted, he rallied all 
his forces, arose upon his feet, in spite of judg- 
ment convinced and sense convicted, and chokes her 
into silence; and conscience, thus resisted, from this 
point grows weaker and weaker at every stej) of stu- 
pefying and blunting opposition, lifot only so, but 
the will and determination of persistence and pursuit 
in evil grow stronger and stronger after this point 
is reached; and it is with little difficulty then that a 
man chokes the breath out of his conscience and 
then stamps the life out of her. This course pur- 
sued, especially in a series of contests, the fight 
kept up often and long- enough, and conscience upon 
all points will be repressed and suppressed for good. 
Although throttled and crushed in one instance, and 
from the stand-point of a specific vice or crime, she 
will rally again when evil passion and purpose, in 
any given case, have been satisfied; and the fight, 
though feebler than at first, will be resumed; but if 



A TIGHT WITH COXSCIEXCE. 339 

conscience does not gain a victory in the next onset, 
her contest will be feebler and fainter still, and so on 
until she will make no resistance at all in the hour of 
temptation. 

Thus the victim of passion will erelong have it all 
his own way in the given direction of his evil course, 
and what is true of one direction in life may become 
true of all directions. Some people have conscience 
in one thing and not in another, but the tendency is 
to kill conscience in every direction Avhen you have 
killed it in any direction. With an undisturbed sense 
of guilt the conscience-killer can go on, after awhile, 
calmly and coolly into vice and crime, without a sting 
or touch of compunction beforehand, and he is only 
affected by the sting of remorse which follows. If 
he pursues his course long, he will reach the point 
when his conscience will hurt him neither before nor 
after his sins. Thousands are terrified after who are 
not troubled before, but the man who can so kill con- 
science as not to trouble him after vice or crime has 
reached the lowest and most fatal point in the deg- 
radation and ruin of moral consciousness. By kill- 
ing conscience before the fact a man lays the best 
foundation for the destruction of conscience after the 
fact, and when he can successfully do both he has 
reached the end of all hope and passed the day of 
grace. 

If a man Avould only let his conscience always ar- 
gue him into the' right every time — if necessary, 
knock him down when perverse, and then get up, 
like a hero, to pursue the right — he would reach that 
point in moral culture and habit when conscience 
would have no need of controversy or conflict with 
the soul. We all have our early contests to begin 



340 A PIGHT WITH co]S'scie:nce. 

with, but habitual victory alone can, erelong, make 
a loftj conscience and give it supremacy and rest. 
Conscience would be but a negative force without 
conflict and trial. It is good for her and for us to 
have our fight until both hecome ])ositive hj develop- 
ment, and it is then that, with an untroubled heart 
and a clear head, man may move mightily and grand- 
ly upon the even and upward tenor of life's way in 
an honest, successful, and happy career. Of course 
there will be emergencies and doubtful contests upon 
the way of those who attempt any thing in conflict 
with the world, the flesh, and the devil; but a victo- 
rious and well-inured conscience is the best solver of 
doubt and the best hand to hold the lamp of experi- 
ence before us. The clearest thinker, the most relia- 
ble actor in the dubious conflicts of life is the man 
who has a good conscience toward God and man, 
made so by education and trial in the fire. It was 
thus no doubt that Paul could boast of a " conscience 
void of offense," and this fact added grandly to the 
masterly conflict which he waged with triumphant 
success over all the forces of nature and the powers 
of darkness. 

A glorious and a dangerous mystery centers in the 
heart of man, and there is nothing he should so study 
and preserve as his conscience, which sits enthroned 
and sceptered in the soul. This is our great "moral 
sense," involving the concurrent testimony of every 
human faculty as to what is right and wrong — as to 
the ought and the ought not which rules our life. 
Conscience is the central sun of an internal system 
around which revolve our ruling principles and pas- 
sions, held to their orbits by the centripetal and cen- 
trifugal forces of will and motive. How delicate the 



A FIGHT WITH CONSCIEIsrCB. 343 

adjustment! how easily disordered and made chaotic! 
"What needs a more habitual, philosophic, and script- 
ural education than conscience? How often pervert- 
ed by a false training, or for the want of education! 
Often this sense becomes dormant or dead. It is the 
key to the heart, the sentinel which guards the soul; 
and here God or the devil enters and reigns. Here 
every human relationship is adjusted. Conscience is 
the granite column which supports the fabric of self 
and society, and many a Samson blind lifts in indis- 
tinguishable ruin this magnificent shaft from beneath 
the structure of his own and the souls of others. Con- 
science wrecked is the world's chaos, and IN'apoleon 
went so far as to call it " the inviolable asylum of the 
liberty of man." Man with it dethroned is a self-pro- 
peller upon a turbulent deep, hurled Avith the force of 
his own destruction upon the reefs of an inevitable 
ruin. Conscience involves every thing. Origen calls 
it "the chamber of justice;" and let me say that with 
a good conscience toward God and man we need nei- 
ther judge nor jur3^ Coleridge pronounced it "the 
pulse of reason," and we may add that all mental sci- 
ence is mastered when a trained conscience rules our 
intellections. Johnson declares it " the sentinel of 
virtue; " and we have compassed all moral philosophy 
when conscience subordinates our passions. Others 
have styled it, " God's deputy," " God's vicegerent," 
" God's oracle," in the soul; and, if so, the heart which 
treasures and heeds " God's monitor," as another calls 
it, needs no other scejDter to sway our mental and emo- 
tional nature. 

On the other hand, Shakespeare says, " Conscience 
is a thousand swords;" and hence, destroyed, she be- 
comes the ^N'emesis of the lost soul. Theodore Par- 



344 A ri&HT WITH CONSCIENCE. 

ker said, "There is no college for the conscience;" 
and Lavater said, " The conscience is wiser than sci- 
ence; " but, if so, it is none the less the subject of 
education, false or true, and from this stand-point it 
is all the more fatal if perverted or prostituted. I 
love to feel like Luther, when he said, "I am more 
afraid of my own heart than of the pope and all his 
cardinals. I have Avithin me the great pope, self; "■ 
and he who fears himself most profoundly will be 
best guided by an inviolate conscience. I once 
talked with a man who seemed to have no con- 
science. He was a murderer, a libertine, and a thief. 
He laughed and joked about his crimes as if they 
were insignificant trifles, and he could sleep as sound- 
ly and sweetly as an infant. He was even a good 
soldier, and about the close of the war he killed a 
Confederate marshal and was executed. Upon the 
gallows he kicked his hat from the platform, and he 
went off into eternity without a tremor and with an 
oath of levity upon his dying lips. How many men 
in the world are like this I do not know, but this 
one thing I do know: it all comes of a man's fight 
with his conscience. Some very bad men have al- 
ways a tender conscience which tortures them; but, 
in spite of pain and misery, they still grow on in sin 
and go to ruin. This also comes of a man's fight 
with his conscience. Whatever the condition of con- 
science in time, nevertheless there comes a moment 
when conscience, however choked or crushed out, will 
re-assert itself. The hour of death usually brings this 
most just judge to the bar of reckoning, and if the 
death-hour should fail, there is a time when con- 
science will make a coward of the guilty soul — at the 
bar of God. How truly did Byron, that man of expe- 



A FIGHT WITH COjS^SCIEXCE. 345 

rience on this subject, describe the remorse of a guilty 
conscience regaining dominion over the guilty soul: 

The mind that broods o'er guilty woes 

Is like the scorpion girt by fire, 
In circle narrowing as it glows, 
The flames around their captive close 
Till inly searched by thousand throes. 

And maddening in her ire, 
One and sole relief she knows: 
The sting she nourished for her foes, 
Whose venom never yet was vain. 
And darts into her desperate brain. 
So do the dark in soxil expire, 
Or live like scorpion girt by fire; 
So writhes the mind remorse has riven, 
Misfit for earth, undoomed for heaven, 
Darkness above, despair beneath, 
Around it flame, within it death." 

Mortal man, let me beg you, never fight your con- 
science. Take care of your conscience, and she will 
be sure to take care of you. 




GHURGH GRUTGHES, 




^HlS sketch represents a small but unique con- 

^^^ course of worshipers going to church late. 

'^r^ They are all on crutches, and they repre- 
sent various characters who constitute a part 
of the assembly of the saints. They are all 
wounded, have been shot or stabbed through 
the feelings, and they are so ofiended and hurt that 
they cannot get to church without limping. They get 
in late, therefore, take a back seat near the door, and 
they go out first and leave early. They do not halt 
and hobble half so badly getting home as they do get- 
ting to church; but, no matter how close the ch»urch 
is to which they belong, it is a long way off and hard 
to reach on occasions of devotion and service. They 
take no part in religious matters when there, and they 
seldom give the pastor or the brethren a chance to 
speak to them unless they desire, like Ajax, to give a 
parting shot from behind them as they go limping 
away. 

In the picture before you are a number of charac- 
ters, all peculiar and peculiarly affected. 

1. Colonel John Brown is just entering the door. 
He was former treasurer, and, the moneys of the 
Church not being well accounted for, he was left out 
at the last annual election and another brother sub- 

(346) 




,i ;.,:■■? »i'i-;HH>.!; 



CHURCH CliUTCHES. 349 

stitutecl. He has never been happy since, and he is 
absolntely irreconcilable and in the sulks. He goes 
to church, but he goes to show how badly he is in- 
jured and to see how deeply he can make the pastor 
and the brethren realize the fact that he is not appre- 
ciated and that he has been most grievously wronged. 

2. j^ext comes Aunt Polly Snooks. She never was 
noticed by the pastor and the rich people, no matter 
how much attention was paid to her in her distress 
and povert}^; and her chief object in going to church 
is to let everybody see how badly she is neglected and 
how dreadfully she is wounded. She talks all around 
the community about the minister and the leading 
brethren, and when they go to see her, as they do as 
often as possible, she is always astonished that they 
have come again. 

8. N^ext comes Deacon Jones. He is for rule or 
ruin, and if he can't pull the whole cart he Avill break 
a trace. The Church gets tired, and " sits down upon 
him," as it were; and he sits back with his "bull- 
dozing" countenance all hung with the dark drapery 
of injured innocence. He is not appreciated, he can- 
not run the machinery of the Church and the pastor, 
and he is determined by his limping gait to make the 
Church as miserable as possible. 

4. Here hobbles old Brother Jedediah Sniflfle- 
wiper. He is a preacher, and the brethren and the 
pastor do not ask him to preach. He is called and or- 
dained of God to preach, and he wants to preach only 
when they do not want to hear him. lie g'ets no calls 
elsewhere, and in his estimation the pastor is an igno- 
ramus — and an ass too, for that matter — that he is not 
allowed to preach where he belongs and when he 
wants to. O he is hurt to the quick, and he tells it 



350 CHURCH CRUTCHES. 

all over the country at all the Associations and Con- 
ferences; and wherever he goes he tries to get np op- 
position to his pastor, as he has tried a dozen times to 
get np a faction in the Church. He too takes a back 
seat, and gets away early and rapidly, unless he wants 
. to stay long enough to give the pastor's sermon a cut. 
God deliver a Church from a preacher whom nobody 
wants to hear preach! 

5. Next comes old Colonel John Thomas Stake- 
holder. He is pursy, fat, and flourishing. He is 
worth two hundred thousand dollars, and lives in grand 
style. He expects to get to heaven, escape hell, and 
carry the world on his back. He attends the horse- 
races, goes to the watering-places, has a big time, and 
he gives a small pittance to the Church, and comes 
when he gets ready. The pastor trod upon his toes, 
and his offended dignity takes a back seat at the 
church on Sunday, and stirs up the world against his 
Church and pastor the balance of the week. He tries 
hard to make the Church realize the danger of tread- 
ing upon a man of his immense proportions, and his 
offended dignity hobbles along and does all the harm 
he can. 

6. Next behold young Gordon Granger Swelleber- 
ger. He joined thp Church in a former revival, and 
his wealthy and distinguished parents dote upon 
Gordon as the highest type, par excellence, of royal 
young manhood. He goes to church occasionally, 
visits all the places of amusement, and gets "tight," 
swears and swells around promiscuously with the 
world. No sermon a pastor could preach would miss 
him, and he and his family are terribly aggrieved on 
account of a discourse which castigated dissipation 
among Church-members. Gordon was no doubt aimed 



CHURCH CRUTCHES. 351 

at, they think, and the young man stands about the 
streets on a crutch and with his arm in a sling, " all 
broken up," and trying to keep everybody else from 
g-oing to his church. He goes now to some other 
church, except occasionally he goes as far as the door 
of his own church to let his pastor see that he does 
not come in. 

7. There is Zeke Smith. He is poor and ragged 
and wears a flopped hat, and he construes the most 
charitable condescension to his condition as an insult 
to his poverty and obscurity. The Church hates poor 
folks, and he has quit going, except to take a back 
seat and stand around and pout and show that nobody 
loves poor folks, especially if they can't dress well. 

8. ISTow see Miss Flora Flimsey as she too goes to 
church on crutches. She is passionately fond of the 
novel, the theater, the dance, of dress and show and 
society. She has not a single taste for Sunday-school 
and prayer-meeting', and she has no relish for preach- 
ing and service on Sunday imless the choir sings opera 
music and the preacher scrapes the sky with eloquence 
or flatters the heart with sensation. The true pastor 
is always treading upon Flora's toes, and she has well- 
nigh quit coming to church. AYhen she comes she 
sits back, talks all the time in service, flouts out when 
the benediction is pronounced, and all the week she 
takes occasion to depreciate her pastor and her Church 
among the worldly Christians of her acquaintance like 
herself. 

Having noticed the figures in the picture — and we 
could have filled in with many more — let us now ex- 
amine more minutely the nature and character of the 
religious crutch upon which the followers of the Lord 
Jesus Christ sometimes halt and hobble. 
23 



352 CHURCH CRUTCHES. 

During the late war thousands of men who could 
by any means frame some excuse, manufacture some 
disease or wound, sometimes even by the breaking of 
their own limbs, or find refuge in some bomb-proof 
to escape service, did so. The amount of disease and 
casualty which afflicted the land was truly astonish- 
ing, not only in the field, but at home. Especially 
did men get sick before a battle, but the proportion of 
infected, defective, and disafi'ected ones in camp was 
far less than at home. Home was the melancholy 
place during the war, not the camp, independent of 
the real causes of distress which arose ont of the ca- 
lamities proper of the great struggle. Crutches were 
in great demand, not only war-made, but home-made; 
for not only soldiers prayed for slight wounds, rheu- 
matism, and other disabilities, but citizens mannfact- 
nred them by the thousands when exemptions more 
favorable to health and bodily soundness could not be 
obtained. After the cruel war was over, however, 
these homesick, bomb-ioroof, self- crippled, and oth- 
erwise and variously exempted and discontented men 
came out of their holes as brave as lions, became 
sound and well, threw oW the hospital mask, threw up 
their exempted occupations, and threw down their 
crutches — until the next war! Even many an old sol- 
dier who seemed to have been fearfully wounded in 
the field improved incredibly fast, and all entered act- 
ively again into the fields of life, business, and pleas- 
in-e, until Corporal Tanner got into the pension busi- 
ness. 

]N^ow all this has a counterpart in the Churches of 
Christ. Thousands are daily shirking duty, like poor 
soldiers and cowardly citizens in time of war. It is 
really amusing, often, to see and hear them in their 



CHURCH CRUTCHES. 353 

frivolous excuses for not giving of their substance, 
attending church, or for otherwise failing to discharge 
their duty. There are several kinds of crutches which 
we will here notice: 

1. The ijoverty crutch. It is incredible how often 
Christians do lie about their poverty. To hear many 
of them talk you would think they w^ere fit only for 
the poor-house. They never have any thing to spare 
for .God, but always something to spare for any world- 
ly object. They can enlarge their business, chew to- 
bacco, and drink whisky, attend amusements, dress 
well, have enough to eat and enjoy themselves with, 
employ doctors and lawyers, have something to lay 
up for a rainy day, but nothing for God and religion. 
How like some during the war — willing to give their 
sons., but not their negroes., for the lost cause! They 
were ready to rebel against the rebellion w^hen their 
slaves were called for, or other sacrifices of property 
were demanded to sustain their cause and country; 
and yet many of these men were seeking to make fort- 
unes out of the necessities and poverty of the people 
and t}ie Government. How many Christians to-day 
who would turn, like the rich young ruler, and leave 
Christ if they had to give up their property to follow 
him! If it is going to take the '•'■niggers,^'' stop the 
war! So with Christ. Many want all the profits in the 
religious business, but they don't want to bear any of 
the expense. How many thousands hobble around on 
this poverty crutch, and cry, " Poor," " broke," 
"hard times," " debt," "pressure of business," and a 
score of other excuses, which indicate that religion is 
but a secondary consideration! But when off" the 
subject of religion it is refreshing to hear some breth- 
ren talk of being rich. They are flush and full of 



354 CHURCH CRUTCHES. 

speculation; " business is business." They lay down 
their crutches, but you just mention Missions and 
Church expenses, and up the crutches come. jSTo 
doubt they often smile at the crutch trick they play 
upon the beggars for Christ, for whom they cherish a 
dogged and hearty contempt. 

2. The sensitive crutch. The late war developed a 
numerous class of croakers and growlers. There 
were those who were alw^ays mad, dissatisfied, com- 
plaining, and hunting a crutch or other means to keep 
out of service and hide their property. Some of them 
were " big men " and former " fire-eaters." So we 
have a number of brethren always sensitive and of- 
fended at some body or some thing. They can't com- 
mune, they can't meet in the Church Conference, they 
can't hear the pastor, they can't haA^e things their own 
w^ay because somebody or something has hurt their 
sensibilities. They are exceedingly thin-skinned, and 
if they can't get an offense any other way, they will 
hunt for one. A soldier at Fredericksburg wanted a 
furlough, and putting his hand above the breastworks 
he got it shot off". He exclaimed: "A discharge, thank 
God!" So some Christians are always wounded by 
looking for offenses and hunting for excuses to be out 
of the way with the Church. They are like the old- 
fashioned Irishman, with his coat-tail dragging the 
ground, daring some one to tread upon it, and thus 
hunting for a fight; and they usually get it, and get 
wounded so that they can hobble on the sensitive 
crutch the balance of their lives. 

3. The Sunday crutch. This carries a numerous class 
— active, energetic, clever, sometimes liberal, attentive 
to business all the week, but they cannot attend prayer- 
meeting, Sunday - school, or preaching on Sunday. 



CHUKCH CllUTCHES. 355 

Rain or shine, cold or hot, cahn or windy, business is 
never neglected. Ice, mud, snow, slush, storm — these 
are no obstacles in the way of secular duty. But re- 
ligion, ah! well, that's another thing. Sunday always 
finds them "tired," "sleepy," "sick," and they must 
" rest.^^ The famil}^, the baby, the cat, the canary, 
the poodle, the toothache, the headache, the backache, 
or some other ache kept them at home all day Sun- 
day; but the baby may squall, the wife may groan, 
the canary, cat, poodle — all may die when Monday 
comes. The Sunday crutch is laid down, and business 
is vigorously resumed. True, the family all went vis- 
iting Sunday afternoon, or they all took a ride in the 
country; but they couldn't come to church. Meet 
them early Monday morning, or they see you coming 
in the distance, and they begin to hobble and lie on 
the Sunday crutch. Heavens! how the people do 
lie about that Sunday business! They stay at home, 
read the daily papers, crack jokes, eat fine dinners, 
visit or ride out, but lie about "feeling too bad" to 
go to church on Sunday. What will become of these 
liars? What falsehood and hypocrisy! 

There are a number of other crutches too numerous 
to mention. Some have nervous crutches, and are able 
to stand any thing else but the sermon and the con- 
gregation of God's house on Sunday. Some can't 
stand the style of the preacher, the singing, or the 
folks, and they hobble on the crutch of taste. Others 
find fault with the character of some of their breth- 
ren, cannot commune with them, and can't go where 
they are, and they hobble upon the felloiv ship crutch, 
as mean as those they condemn. Some object to this 
or that doctrine, and they are hobbling around you all 
the while on the crutch of some other denomination. 



356 CHUKCH CRUTCHES. 

while, indeed, they would not be satisfied or worth 
any thing anywhere. The devil has made a pair of 
crutches for every Christian, so called, who wants to 
halt and hobble, and unfortunately there are thousands 
of patrons who support this part of the devil's busi- 
ness. All I can say is, God have mercy upon the 
crutch-finders and the crotchet-hunters! I fear that 
hell will be full of such people going directly from 
the Churches upon crutches. You can never cure 
one in a hundred of the crutch disease. Prejudice, 
pride, selfish j)i'eference — these three evil principles 
lie at the bottom of this sin; and these principles, once 
set in the heart, are well-nigh incurable and inerad- 
icable. Laziness, too, is a mighty factor in the making 
of religious crutches. After all, a Church is very 
much like a drove of mules — some active, and always 
ahead; some conservative, and always in the middle; 
and some lazy, hobbling and lingering in the rear, 
falling out at last and left behind. Many start well, 
but fall by the way, often otfended and halting upon 
crutches, to be left and lost in the end. So it was 
with Israel on the way to Canaan. Only two of the 
old stock above twenty years ever reached the happy 
land, and so with our Churches — many will be left 
and lost who started apparently well on the way. 
Alas! 







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?HE GROOK AMD THE GRANK. 




this sketcli we have two pictures which il- 
^ Instrate, as near as imagination can get it, 
two characters common in ahnost every 
community. 

I. Obsekve the Crook. 

He is a wiry, circular, eely, oily, snaky-looking fel- 
low, with a sharp, sinister face, a keen, piercing eye 
which looks you under, sidewise, or straight, as he 
looks characteristic or assumes an honest appearance. 
All his motions and attitudes are circular and round- 
about, and he is a most perfect illustration of the ser- 
pent in human form. 

• The term " crook " is usually applied at police head- 
quarters to bad men and Avomen living under cover, 
spotted as criminals of some character, and under the 
surveillance of the law. They are thieves, burglars, 
confidence - men, pickpockets, shop-lifters, and the 
like; and they either work in gangs, with "pals," or 
alone, as the case may be. Some of them are very 
low and degraded characters, while others assume the 
shape of gentlemen and ladies. The professional 
beggar, often very wretched-looking, sometimes well 
dressed, always schooled to a hypocritical and obse- 
quious air of want and suifering, might come under 
this head, thpugh not technically so called. 

(359) 



360 THE CROOK A]S"D THE CRANK. 

This covers the general definition of the crook; but 
I want to extend the definition to a larger and more 
respectable class of individuals not so called. The 
thief and the house-breaker and the gambler are not 
always the most dangerously crooked people in the 
world. They are only the midnight wolves who prowl 
about the confines of society, seldom coming in con- 
tact with the better circles of mankind. The eye of 
the police is upon them, and it is under the greatest 
difficulty that they can do us any harm. Even then, 
they only hurt our pocket-books or our property. 
Let us look at some of the worst of all the crooks who 
infest and damage society. 

1. There is the " cornerer^'' the respectable gambler 
in stocks and bonds, the " futures " speculator in the 
necessities of life, creating exorbitant and fictitious 
prices upon food and raiment, robbing the producer 
and oppressing the consumer. " Old Hutch " and a 
thousand others like him are among the worst enemies 
of the poor, the demoralizers of business and society; 
and their ability and respectability, coupled with their 
piles of gold, sinning with impunity and immunity, 
enables them to crush all moral opposition and to set 
at defiance all law and sentiment. 

2. Look at our trusts and monopolies. They pit 
themselves against all competition at home, and cry 
for " protection " against all competition abroad. The 
big fish eat up the little ones, our smaller men and en- 
terprises are driven to the wall, the few get rich and 
the many get poor all the faster, and the laboring- 
classes are held to perpetual poverty, ignorance, and 
violence. Politics and legislation are everywhere 
corrupted and controlled by the " rings," and we have 
reached an age when politics and governmental ad- 



THE CROOK AJSTD THE CEAKK. 361 

ministration are dominated by the " almighty dollar," 
with their head-quarters in the saloon. The " whisky 
ring " is a stupendous circular crook which winds its 
anaconda folds around the life of our nation. The 
bar-room is well-nigh the master of this country, and 
both our great national parties are at the mercy of 
this ring, which girds a planet with a belt of black- 
ness. Crookedness, crookedness! 

3. Observe the respectable crook in ordinary busi- 
ness. How many thieves and pickpockets, cheaters 
and swindlers, opj^ressors of the poor, and deceivers 
of the world shine in the club-room, the drawing- 
room, and the front pew! Men become millionaires 
by grinding the laborer, and yet sing psalms on Sun- 
day. Others deal in false weights, short measm^es, 
and adulterated merchandise, employ every trick of 
trade, accumulate fortunes by deception and sharp 
driving, and by reason of a big safe and a heavy 
purse pass for honest men and good Church-members. 
They spend a life of crookedness in business, and 
their pastor sends them to heaven at the funeral. 

4. Observe the seducer, called the " masher." He 
ensconces himself in your parlor to have "fun," as he 
terms it, with your daughters, and by all his wily, 
snaky arts he wins the confidence and love of some 
silly girl, and erelong the once spotless dove is soiled 
and ruined. We often denounce the ball-room, the 
theater, the bar-room, and other recruiting shops of 
the devil. They do deceive and mislead thousands of 
the young; but the unguarded parlor is the most dan- 
gerous place in the world. ]^ext comes the moonlight 
ride, the lawn party, the fishing spree, the huckleberry- 
hunt, and the like. It is here in these secret places 
that the citadel of the female heart is oftenest assault- 



362 THE CROOK AND THE CEAJ^^K. 

ed, and, being improperly strengthened and fortified 
by parental indulgence and training, undue familiarity 
opens the way of the seductive crook into the strong- 
hold of virtue and purity. He is not always and al- 
together to blame. The customs of society allow him 
the privilege of the " arm clutch," the " round dance," 
the lustful kiss, the squeeze of the hand; and not un- 
frequently some of the belles cJaim to be "lemons" 
only to be " squeezed." The chastity of thousands 
of our girls is tainted thus, and nothing hut fear stands 
between them and ruin. IN'evertheless, the blackest 
fiend out of hell is the seducer. The penitentiary is 
paradise for him. The neck-tie of the gibbet best 
becomes his serpentine villainy. 

5. Then there is the clerical crook — quite a num- 
ber of them, of all shades, shadows, and shines. He 
" creeps into houses and leads captive silly women 
laden with sins, led away of divers lusts;" and about 
the best evidence of his presence is the manifest ad- 
miration and infatuation of the ladies in any given 
Church or community. He is smothered with com- 
pliments, flowers, 'presents, and, sometimes, kisses. 
He is called "sweet," "grand," "eloquent," "splen- 
did," "killing," and the fine fellow swells and struts 
and smiles and flatters and fondles in return. His 
sermons are all popular and broad, and he fairly floats 
upon the perfumed breeze of adulation. His people 
weep for sentiment, but never for sin; " Jesus is never 
seen nor heard for the man. In the very nature of 
things, unguarded by the grace of God, the best 
.preacher is sometimes made a clerical crook. 

The clerical crook is sometimes a ministerial tramp, 
going about playing the game of confidence, working 
his brethren, imposing upon their hospitality, getting 



THE CPtOOK AXD THE CRAXK. 363 

their money under false pretenses, seeking places of 
honor abroad with a bad odor at home. Churches are 
often deluded and torn up by these humbugs. Even 
the sheep follow these crooks with the Master's crook 
in their hands and letters of recommendation in their 
pockets; and the poor, simple fools often only find 
out their folly when it is too late. jS'ot unfrequently 
they run off the old pastor to put a serpentine crook 
in their bosoms. They always get bit in the end. 

We might speak of many other classes of crooks, 
but we will spare the lesser fry. There are crooked 
deacons, crooked treasurers, crooked members, male 
and female, in many of our Churches. Crooks abound 
everywhere, and we are not to go to police head-quar- 
ters alone to find them. Beware of the crooks, and 
the best way to bcAvare is to look into your OAvn bosom 
and see if there is not a crook there. 

II. Observe the Craxk. 

This is a common genus homo, especially in these lat- 
ter days. I suppose crooks have always existed, and 
so have cranks. Timon of Athens, Antisthenes and 
Diogenes were cranks, and no doubt .^Esop and Soc- 
rates were considered cranks. There was a crook 
among the twelve apostles (Judas), and Peter some- 
times seemed a little cranky. 

But what is meant by a crank? This character is 
somewhat varied in its peculiarities, and he is harder 
to define than the crook; but we may say of him that 
he is a man of angles, not crooks, as you see in the 
illustration. He is an "Angular Saxon," and my ob- 
servation is that he generally belongs to the Saxon 
family. The crank is usually an honest, straightfor- 
ward, though salient and original character. He is 
not morally mean, and he may be a good Christian as 



304 THE CROOK AND THE CRA:N"K. 

well as an unconverted sinner, intelligent as well as 
ignorant, learned as well as illiterate'. Some of the 
most intellectual and lofty spirits have been the worst 
of cranks. The great difficulty we meet in the crank 
is that he is at right angles, and sometimes acute an- 
gles, with everybody and every thing except himself 
and his notions. He often rides a hobby, and if so, 
he is in salient opposition to everybody and every 
thing which cannot straddle his little horse. He will 
not be satisfied, either, until he can get you upon his 
wooden pet; and he Avill spend a life-time of energy 
and zeal in pressing upon you the importance of his 
hobby, absolutely the most important of all important 
things. 

Whether he rides a hobby or not, he is always pe- 
culiar, and peculiarly distinguished from all other 
men. He seldom agrees with you at any point in the 
consideration of things common among men, and he 
is often so peculiar that he will change his mind and 
shift his position if he finds that you agree with him. 
Even in a multitude of counsel upon the most diffi- 
cult subject he will bolt the convention, and if he 
were to call a convention of his own and of himself 
alone, so to speak, he would dissent at last from his 
own decisions. 

More than this, the crank is seldom, if ever, prac- 
tical, although sometimes his inventive and discover- 
ing genius goes ahead of the world and of the day in 
which he lives. All men who have lived ahead of 
their fellows in their times have been considered fools 
and cranks; but this does not imply that they were 
such. Our greatest originators and creators were 
held and persecuted as cranks and fanatics until the 
world caught up with them; and then, like the Jews 



THE CKOOK AXD THE CKAISTK. 365 

did their slain prophets, they build monuments to 
them. Bunyan was no doubt considered a crank as 
well as a heretic in his day, but recently England put 
his statue in Westminster Abbey. All such cranks 
as Columbus, "Washington, Harvey, Galileo, and Lu- 
ther have turned the world forward for centuries upon 
its great centennial axis. So of Morse and Fulton 
and Stephenson and Eads and a host of others. 

Besides impracticability in the genuine crank, he is 
often and truly a fanatic — irrational, incorrigible, and 
unimpressible. In the great bundle of his peculiari- 
ties he sometimes has something good, but with im- 
practicable fanaticism he carries his ideas to extremes 
and fails to reach the conservative co-operation of 
mankind in order to carry them out. Even when a 
man is a crank upon something true and good he kills 
his influence by his persistent hobby ism and his of- 
fensive idiosyncrasy. Every thing runs into the groove 
of his own idea, the importance of which dwindles 
every thing else into absolute insignificance; and, 
with an utter disregard for the opinions of all man- 
kind besides, the crank soon becomes, even in the good 
and the true, an insufferable bore. 

One-idead men have done the world, in some in- 
stances, its greatest good; but, to be successful, they 
put their one idea in harmony with all other ideas 
about them. They were practical with their pecul- 
iarity, and they were neither hobbyists nor fanatics. 
They had common sense as well as singular genius, 
and, whatever their persistent enthusiasm, they pressed 
nothing out of joint. They bowed at the feet of 
learning and excellence, and they only implored the 
forces of wealth and ability to consider their claims. 
They were not George Francis Trains, nor were they 



366 THE CROOK AND THE CRANK, 

anarchists, anti-poverty fanatics, and all-the-world 
panacea propagandists of our day. They were com- 
mon-sense geniuses who knew that they had something 
good for the world, and with wisdom and fortitude, 
suffering opposition and persecution, they waited and 
worked until they succeeded. 

Henry George, Father McGlynn, Justin D. Fulton, 
Frances Willard, and others are considered cranks 
upon a grand scale, urging great but impractical ideas; 
but it may be that they are but great revolutionizers 
of thought and of society. They may turn out ahead 
of their age. Let us not always judge too harshly of 
those considered cranks, remembering how often the 
world has persecuted its greatest benefactors. The 
Pharisees considered Christ a crank, but he has rev- 
olutionized the world, and the once cruel cross has 
become the ensign of the world's glory. Best of all, 
let us examine ourselves and see if there is not a crank 
within, knowing that most men have something pe- 
culiar. There are but few straight trees in the forest. 
Most of them are crooked or gnarled or knotty or 
cranky. 




24 



SHIMEI THROWme STONES. 




\'NEi of the most pitiable scenes in history was 
that of David and his friends fleeing from 
Jerusalem and from the threatened de- 
strnction by his own son, Absalom. This 
promised to be the great disaster of his life, 
and he went out of the city and over the slope 
of Mount Olivet barefoot, covered with sackcloth, 
weeping as he went up, and all the people, with heads 
covered and eyes weeping, followed him. The only 
hope David seemed to have was that God would 
"• turn the counsel of Ahithophel," his chief counsel- 
or, " into foolishness," for, as an arch-conspirator, he 
would be Absalom's chief adviser. Quite a number 
of leading friends joined the king on the way, but 
he sent back such men as Hushai, and Zadok and Abi- 
athar the priests, to counteract the conspiracy and 
keep him informed of Absalom's movements, while he 
himself moved on with his little army and the people. 
A little beyond Mount Olivet, Ziba, the servant of 
Mephibosheth, came to him with a couple of asses 
loaded with bread, raisins, wine, and fruits, and so in 
his great and bitter misfortune he had some consola- 
tion and encouragement at the hands of distinguished 
friends, while the mass of the people, led by the sons 
of Zeruiah, Joab and Abishai, stood by him, but not 

(369) 



370 SHIMEI THROWi:^G STOjS^ES. 

gathered in sufficient numbers as yet to resist the re- 
bellion of Absalom. 

David had just reached Bahurim in his flight when 
there " came out a man of the family of Saul's house 
named Shimei, the son of Gera." The general scene 
of sympathy changed, and, instead of condoling with 
the king and wishing him success in the end, this 
man walked along on the hill-side and cursed the 
king in his grief and misfortune. More than this, 
he cast stones at David and at his retinue of servants 
and followers; being, no doubt, in a safe place, high 
up on the hill-side, where the compliment of replying 
stones could not be well returned, and knowing that 
David was in a hurry. How Shimei cursed and threw 
stones and cast dust! He called the King a "bloody 
man," and a "man of Belial," the devil; and he 
charged him with usurping Saul's crown, and de- 
nounced upon him the curse of Absalom as a just ret- 
ribution for the destruction of Saul's house. " Be- 
hold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art 
a bloody man," he said; and how long he continued 
to curse, to cast dust, and to stone David and his 
friends we do not know. 

The sons of Zeruiah proposed to go and take oif 
the head of this "dead dog " of Saul's house; but Da- 
vid was a great-hearted man in his sorrow and mis- 
fortune, as well as in joy and prosperity, and he had 
no time to stop to kill fleas. " Let him curse," said 
David, " because the Lord hath said unto him. Curse 
David." If God sends this grievous episode on the 
way, then we must submit, was David's idea, and 
then he turned to the hopeful side of his case, and 
remarked to his friends : " It may be that the Lord 
will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will re~ 



SHIMEI THROWIJSra STO]^ES. 371 

quite me good for his cursing this day." David ar- 
gued that his own son was seeking his life, and how 
much more might Shimei curse and stone and cast 
dust at him! He philosophically took the whole mat- 
ter as a designing providence, and left the solution of 
its mystery to the future; and in his magnanimity he 
forgave Shimei when he returned victorious over his 
son, Absalom, back to Jerusalem. Submission to 
God's will in misfortune; magnanimous clemency to 
his enemies in victory ! This was great-hearted and 
lofty-minded David, and he would have spared Absa- 
lom, the arch-traitor, above all, if he could. 

But the most pusillanimous creature in the whole 
lot of David's enemies and persecutors on this occa- 
sion was Shimei. His conduct was the very baseness 
of all cowardice and meanness, and the apparently 
brave bully — casting dust, cursing, and throwing 
stones when he thought he was safe — became the ab- 
ject and obsequious dog at the feet of David when 
he returned victorious from the bloody field of 
Ephraim wood. So it always is with the coward 
and the vile enemy Avho will take the advantage of 
your misfortunes to insult and injure you, and at the 
same time to seek their own ascendency over you. It 
must have been a well-known fact that God had de- 
posed Saul and his house and had exalted David to 
the throne and scepter of Israel, and David had been 
exceedingly kind to Saul and his family, although 
Saul, in his life-time, had sought every means which 
jealousy and envy could invent to destroy David. 
Even when Saul and Jonathan fell on Gilboa's gory 
heights, slain by their own hands, David gave vent, 
in the noblest strain of magnanimity ever written, to 
the grief and appreciation of his own heart; and yet 



372 SHiMEi throwijs^g stones. 

Shimei and Saul's descendants, like Saul himself, 
still cherished the spirit of malice and revenge to- 
ward " the man after God's own heart." 

Green-eyed envy, base -minded littleness, vile- 
hearted cowardice, in man are always as blind to 
God's purposes and providence as to the moral sub- 
limity and nobility of superior character; and neither 
the judgments of God nor the condescension and fa- 
vor of human generosity can transform cowardice and 
pusillanimity into manhood and honor. These quali- 
ties in human nature are always at war with every 
thing good and lofty above them, and when misfort- 
une or affliction come to the objects of their envy or 
revenge, they are always on hand to insult and in- 
jure. There is sometimes no cure for them except to 
kill them. David had been kind to Shimei and his 
kindred. He forgave him his wrong perpetrated at 
Bahurim, but Shimei would have repeated his low 
drama of baseness and cowardice the next day, if the 
opportunity had been afforded. Shimei was the char- 
acter personated to whom Shakespeare spoke when he 
said : 

You are the liare of whom the proverb goes, 
Whose valor plucks dead lions by the beard. 

Honest people are often cowardly, but to add base- 
ness and villainy to cowardice makes the vilest 
creature that God ever permitted to live. 

Here we learn an important, though sad lesson, and 
it is valuable, especially to the young, to learn it, in 
order not to be surprised in life. Your enemies will 
fight you as you rise to position and prosperity. 
They may subside and become silent Avhen you have 
triumphed over your strugg'les for honor, fame, or 
wealth; but when misfortune comes the Shimeis will 



SHIMEI TIIKOWIXG STOXES. 373 

be on hand to curse you, to cast dust, and to throw 
stones, especially if you have ever had any conflict 
with them. They cannot keep an honest and ener- 
getic man from rising, for they are the breeze against 
the kite which may enable it to fly. They cannot 
hurt you when you are on top of earth's favor and 
glory; but when you once fall, they often sting you 
with the keenest arrows of chagrin and sorrow, espe- 
cially if they think you have any likelihood of rising 
up again. 

Always be sure, in your efforts to succeed in life, 
that you do no man wrong; make no enemy justly, 
for then in misfortune your Shimei could pierce you 
through Avith many arrows which would sting your 
conscience as Avell as your pride; but be sure that 
if you have lived a positive and aggressive life for 
good or greatness; if you have risen by battling down 
the elements against all positive development, and 
then fail or fall, you will have your Shimeis at best 
and anyhow. It will l)c something precious then to 
feel the grand and magnanimous indifference and re- 
lief of David, who could say; "Let him curse, let 
him throw stones, let him kick up his dust; he cannot 
hurt me." You can then leave your Shimeis to God, 
and, as best you can, leave yourself and misfortunes 
to the same God who brought off David more than 
conqueror. A man in misfortune, cursed and stoned 
by the Shimeis, and without the help of God, can 
find his only relief — and that earthly and unsatisfy- 
ing — in stoical indifference to pain as to pleasure. 
But the miseries of David were turned into joy, and 
the insults of his enemies recoiled upon their own 
heads, because God was with him. He acted Christ- 
like on this occasion, and in fact in all this misfort- 



374 SHIMEI THEOWISTG STON^ES. 

une he seemed a type of Christ. Say what you will,. 
Christ teaches the only remedy for the cure of evil 
and for the conquest of enmity and meanness. For- 
give your enemies; do good to them that despitefully 
use you; bless for cursing, and you will heap coals of 
fire upon the heads of those who would injure you. 
Of course the application of this principle relates to 
personal injuries. While David spared and forgave 
Shimei, he pitched his armies against Absalom, the 
enemy of his country; and while his own son was 
slain, his merely personal enemy was allowed to live, 
and to live ashamed and abashed in the light and in 
the sight of his base ingratitude. A true and valiant 
man would have rather died. Ahithophel went and 
hanged himself. In all matters of governmental or 
official or disciplinary duty the matter of magnani- 
mous forbearance and forgiveness depends upon con- 
ditions and circumstances; but in personal matters 
Christ alone teaches us how to conquer enmity and^ 
if possible, turn our enemies into friends. 

Love is the only true and invincible ruler of man- 
kind, and love never was vanquished nor hurt by 
the exercise of forgiveness and magnanimity, as the 
whole life of David demonstrated — save where in of- 
ficial relations and duties he allowed his affections to 
be betrayed into a false indulgence. "We may always 
look out for the Shimeis in misfortune; but in trust- 
ing God and showing forbearance and kindness, we 
have the surest promise and outcome of victory over 
our misfortunes and foes as well. 'No man ever failed 
here, or ever will fail, every thing else being equal. 
Earth nor hell can hunt a good man down, if he will 
trust God in love, and do good for evil. 

Especially can a man always aflFord to be magnani- 



SHIMEI TIIROWIXG STONES. 375 

mous with his foes when he is triumphant. Joab and 
Abishai wanted to kill Shimei still, after theyliad re- 
turned., for cursing the Lord's anointed. David re- 
plied: " Shall there a man be put to death this day in 
Israel ? for do not I know that I am this day king 
over all Israel?" So he turned to Shimei and said: 
" Thou shalt not die." And the king sware unto him. 
An offended and jealous tyrant would have slain the 
miscreant, but the great-heai'ted David could afibrd 
to be generous to his meanest enemy, especially when 
no danger to the State was involved. What a lesson 
for statesmen to learn! and what a lesson for all men 
to consider! Under all circumstances we must love 
and forgive our enemies at heart, and whatever be our 
personal or official relationships, it pays to be gener- 
ous to a fallen foe, if safety will permit it. 

A blot will ever remain upon the escutcheon of 
England for her treatment of the great jSTapoleon 
who cast himself upon her mercy and magnanimity. 
She could, at least, have placed him upon some spot 
of earth, in some place of confinement, below or 
above a tropical sun, where he might have enjoyed 
the blessing of health, and have lived and died in 
the smiles of a generous and agreeable nature. 
Saint Helena — the crater of an extinguished volcano 
— sweltering under an equatorial sun, hung with 
deadly mists, somber with the everlasting gloom of 
barrenness, and torn with the terrors of the perpetu- 
al tornado! Magnanimity to a fallen and submissive 
foe! My young friends, always be forgiving, gener- 
ous, and kind to your enemies — to your Shimeis; and 
when it is possible, give them your hand and restore 
them to your confidence. Especially do this if they 
repent and confess their wrong, as Shimei did — al- 



376 SHIMEI THROWIX& STONES. 

though I have no confidence in David's Shimei, and 
perhaps" he had none. It is hnman, and barely hu- 
man, to act the part of a Shimei; but it is divine, it 
is Christ-like, to act the part of David. 

Don't forget it, however, Shimei will throw stones, 
curse, and kick up a dust. The most insignificant 
puppet can insult and hurt you when you are down. 
"When the old lion in ^Esop's fable became decrep- 
it and was about to die he realized this. The other 
beasts, like the bull and the boar, came and gored and 
tusked him in his helplessness. He could bear the 
ignominious insults and injuries received at the 
hands of what he considered his nohle enemies, but 
when the " ass " came and kicked him or kicked at 
him, when "the disgrace of nature" scorned him in 
the hour of his misfortune, this was the keenest cut 
and the deepest mortification to his pride. Among 
the Shimeis will be the ass and the dog, the meanest 
and the lowest of the animal family; and in misfort- 
une w^e must never be surprised at indignity from the 
basest and vilest of mankind. So David felt, no doubt, 
as to Ms pusillanimous Shimei. 





FAST YOUNG lARK TREED. 



^I^^BSALOM had a fine head of liair — whether 
' ^k^^ blonde or black or auburn. I do not know; 
^^ '^ and it must have been one of his chief 
personal attractions. Being- very luxuri- 
W^^ ant and heavy in its growth, he "polled" or 
§1^^' cropped it every year, and the weight of the 
cropping amounted to " two hundred shekels after the 
king's weight," equal to eight pounds Troy weight, ac- 
cording to the Hebrew tables. Perhaps the " king's 
weight " was something less, but at all events Absa- 
som carried a remarkable head of hair, so much so 
that the divine record sees fit to mention the fact. 
Perhaps he ornamented it with jewels and made it 
glisten with unguents, after the fashion of his day; 
and its beauty must have corresponded with its weight 
and exuberance, the charm of the women and the 
wonder of the men. 

To what extent this head of hair was a matter of 
vanity to Absalom himself we have no means of know- 
ing, and we can only infer that it was by its reference 
in the record to other things, We know that occasion- 
ally we see men wearing long, heavy heads of hair, and 
nobody ever saw such a man that was not a creature 
of great vanity. Most men clip or poll their hair 
very closely, and perhaps Absalom did for aught we 

(379) 



380 FAST YOUIS^G- MAjST TREED, 

know, as he cut off eight pounds of it every year; but 
it must have grown to considerable length and must 
have been displayed to great advantage. Some of 
these long-haired dudes never clip their locks at all, 
at least not for years. 

There was another remarkable feature in Absalom's 
personal make-up. There was not " in all Israel " 
one " to be so much' praised for his beauty." It is 
said by the divine record that " from the sole of his 
foot to the crown of his head there was not a blemish 
in him." He was the perfect model of beautiful man- 
hood, faultless in feature, symmetrical in figure, and 
blameless in stature and style. He could neither be 
added to nor taken from in the proportion and make- 
up of his physique, and Mature had about exhausted 
herself in beautifying and endowing this young man. 
ISTo doubt his personal appearance was also a matter 
of vanity, without any vexation of spirit. 

He was just the fellow to pose himself on the street- 
corner; and, with the air and assumption of his phys- 
ical excellence, he would stand and enjoy the admira- 
tion and gaze of the passers-by, thousands of whom, 
both male and female, are perfectly infatuated with 
physical and fascinating beauty. As he walked the 
streets or rode upon the thoroughfares of Jerusalem 
he was the subject of universal remark, naturally an 
object of attraction and the subject of flattery and 
adulation; and we may just imagine how his ears 
pricked up at the buzz of applause, and how his heart 
swelled with the conception of his personal impor- 
tance. He was inflated well-nigh to bursting with 
his bigness, all the result of the self-conscious pride 
of his own personal splendor and of the praise and 
admiration of the people constantly heaped upon him. 



' PAST YOUX& MAX TREED. 381 

With all this, however, Absalom was not a fool. 
He was a young man of a hio-h-toned sense of per- 
sonal and family honor, and he never rested until he 
had killed Amnon for the ruin of his sister Tamar. 
He was a man who could keep his tongue and his 
counsel, and, if he cherished revenge as in the case 
above, he had the patience and the unforgiving* per- 
severance of the Indian to wait and accomplish his 
purpose effectually. More than this, he was ambi- 
tious, and, like jS^apoleon, he did not scruple at any 
measure to reach an end. Commensurate with his 
ambition he possessed a bold and fearless spirit, a 
strong and well-balanced judgment, a determined and 
unwavering" will; and he worked systematically and 
cautiously to carry out his plans. He was a Caesar 
in genius, with all his personal vanity, and, unlike 
most empty-headed and vain people who become lost 
in their own personal attractions, Absalom utilized 
his fascinating beauty and power for his purposes. 

He was as perfect a demagogue as ever lived, and 
with his charms of magnetism and splendor he stole 
the hearts of the people, " stole the hearts of the men of 
Israel." After his return from exile, and after his res- 
toration to his father's confidence and favor through 
the instrumentality of Joab, pretending sorrow and re- 
pentance for the murder of his brother, he went delib- 
erately to the work of undermining his father's power 
and of usurping his throne. He rode the streets in 
chariots, followed by retinues of sympathizers, while 
his father rode a mule ; he met the disaffected and kissed 
them, expressing his great sorrow that the government 
of his father could not give justice to the people nor 
foster the dignity of Israel; and he was continually ex- 
claiming: "O that I were made judge of the land, 



382 PAST YOUN& MAN TREED. 

that every man that hath a suit or cause might come to 
me, and I wonld do him justice! " 

It was tlius that this ai'tful and able young genius 
worked until he had Israel ripe for rebellion and rev- 
olution. To this end he secretly sent spies through- 
out the kingdom. A trumpet was to be blown upon 
a certain day, and all Israel was to proclaim Absalom 
king; and when the day came, by permission of his 
father, he went to Hebron under the pretense of of- 
fering sacrifice; and here, with the counsel of Ahith- 
ophel, the rebellion and revolution were organized. So 
secret was the work that David knew nothing of it, 
nor did those who accompanied Absalom from Jeru- 
salem, and had it not been for hasty messengers to 
David, Absalom would have surprised him in his own 
X^alace. 

David fled with his friends and his little army to 
Mahanaim, across the Jordan, and had God not con- 
founded the counsel of Ahithophel, through the ad- 
vice of Hushai and the strategy of David, Absalom 
woidd probably have followed his father and defeated 
him before he could have organized his forces for bat- 
tle. The battle of the wood of Ephraim was subse- 
quently fought, and the forces of Absalom were de- 
feated and routed with great slaughter. Absalom was 
caught by the head, and no doubt his hair helped to 
entangle him in the branches of a great oak, and here 
Joab found him and killed him. A pile of stones was 
heaped upon his dead body ; and this was the fit monu- 
ment erected to his filial ingratitude and rebellion. 

He died the infamous traitor of his country, and 
the name of Absalom will go down with those of Ben- 
edict Arnold and the like to the disgrace of their his- 
tory forever. Such men cannot succeed in the end; 



FAST YOUN& ma:n^ trepjd. 383 

and however grand and noble in blood or position, 
however fair the prospects and promises of success, 
they will go down under the doom of failure and un- 
der the characteristic fact that the way of the trans- 
gressor is hard. What abilities and possibilities were 
those of which Absalom was possessed! How great 
and glorious would religion and virtue have made 
such a young man! He turned all his powers and 
charms to treason and villainy, and he went suddenly 
and without i-emedy to everlasting as well as temporal 
destruction. * 

In conclusion, let us draw a few lessons from the 
Tiistory of this young man — this fast young man at 
last treed and slain like a wild beast of the forest and 
consigned to infamy and despair. 

1. It is a dangerous and deadly thing to be beau- 
tiful and not be good. Unconsecrated and ivicked 
beauty is a snare of the devil, and it almost always 
becomes the victim of evil, or else the victimizer of 
innocence. It engenders pride and vanity, and it has 
turned the great head and created the bad heart of 
many an Absalom before and since. A " pretty man " 
is seldom, if ever, of any account; and if he have 
abilities, he but too often turns them to bad account. 
It is dangerous for even a woman to be beautiful, and 
it may be set down as a rule that manly beauty al- 
most always carries with it a fatal charm. Most of 
the greatness and goodness of this world have been 
contained in rough and ugly caskets. Beautiful vases 
are seldom used for any thing but flowers. How far 
Absalom's beauty went to ruin him we have no means 
of knowing; but, from all the intimations, Ave may 
judge that his personal vanity created the fatal JNTem- 
esis of destruction which swept before his fall. 
25 



384 FAST YOUXG^ MAIST TREED. 

2. We imag-ine from the record that Absalom was 
also a sijoiled young man. His father loved him with 
an overweening affection, and he evidently indnlg-ed 
him without watching his course to every desire of 
his fancy and of his vanity. He killed his brother, 
he burned Joab's corn-field, he betrayed his father — 
all in the face of parental love and forgiveness; and it 
would seem that he had been left, like many other 
boys, to, indulge his passions and his temper, to have 
his own way and pursue his own course, unchecked by 
parental or legal authority all his life. Pie was his 
father's pet and favorite, and the old king's last lament 
goes to show that, in spite of all Absalom's faults and 
crimes, he loved this boy above the good and welfare 
of his kingdom and his country. Such training and 
indulgence would ruin any boy, more especially a boy 
of such fascinating beauty and vicious tendencies as 
Absalom possessed. Parents, look out for your boys; 
boys, look out for yourselves. 

3. Absalom's great sin was filial ingratitude, and 
tbe child which does not honor its parents shall not 
live honorably or long upon this earth. Impetuous, 
violent, insolent, proud, ambitious, treacherous, un- 
scrupulous, this young man grew in wickedness and 
rebellion until he could lay his hand upon his father's 
crown and take his father's life; and this is but the 
common end of filial ingratitude or disobedience, 
when it has sufficiently developed, with favorable op- 
portunities and temptations, in every case of disaster 
and fatal termination to young life in every generation. 

How many children actually kill their parents, or 
kill somebody else, or otherwise close their lives in 
some fatal tragedy! and Avho can tell how much and 
how many of these misfortunes and miseries of young 



FAST YOUXG MAX TREED. 385 

life are traceable to parental indulgence on one side, 
or to filial ingratitude on the other? David's last 
great mistake with Absalom was the forgiveness and 
restoration of his son to confidence and public favor, 
after his return from the exile of Geshur. He for- 
gave Absalom without repentance, though he pre- 
tended it; and he then trusted him without watching 
his conduct. Forgiveness and restoration, without 
repentance and reformation, would ruin both earth 
and heaven and turn loose bad men and devils, and 
such clemency would be criminal and unmerciful to 
the good of heaven and earth. Absalom played the 
hypocrite, and took advantage of his father's unwary 
ignorance and innocence, and his fatal end soon cul- 
minated in the just retribution of his diabolical in- 
gratitude. 

The end of Absalom is sad, especially when we re- 
flect upon what that young man "might have been; " 
and the saddest wail which ever went up from a broken 
heart was that of David at Mahanaim when he learned 
of his boy's death: "And the king was much moved, 
and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept : 
and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom! my 
son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, 
O Absalom, my son, my son! " He knew that his bad 
boy, impenitent and unbelieving and ungrateful to the 
last, was not only dead, but lost ! He knew, too, that his 
own training and indulgence had been such as to be 
somewhat the cause of his final disaster; and nothing- 
can be more torturing to a parental heart than to feel 
that it has a boy in hell with a sense of responsibility 
for his being there. God save us all from David's 
last lament over a lost boy! and may God save your 
boys from Absalom's fatal end, his everlasting ruin! 



HOUSE OR A ROGK. 




jJN'CIEI^T cities and houses were generally 
i^^g built upon high i^laces, and especially in 
^&' cities they sought some high eminence for 
the citadel, as at Kome, and as the Acropolis 
and the Acrocorinthus at Athens and Corinth. 
^^ These places, however, were chosen rather for 
defense than for foundations; but in Matthew vii. 
24-27 we find a sort of parabolic illustration of the 
pictorial idea before us. It reads as follows, from the 
lips of Jesus : " Therefore whosoever heareth these 
sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto 
a wise man, which built his house upon a rock : and 
the 'rain descended, and the floods came, and the 
winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: 
for it was founded upon a rock. And evoj-y one that 
heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, 
shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his 
house upon the sand : and the rain descended, and the 
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that 
house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it." 

The reason for the fall, of course, is implied in the 
fact that it was built upon the sand. It could not 
stand against the floods, built down in the sandy val- 
ley, where foolishly some built their houses in ancient 
times, just as they do to-day. The house built upon 
(386) 



^^-:-; 








HOUSE OX A KOCK. 389 

the rocky summit or hill-side could never be affect- 
ed by the flood, however severely the vinds might 
blow or the rains fall or the storm beat upon it. 
Hence the wise man builds his house upon a rock, 
far above the flood-tide; and it is only the foolish 
man who, when he could help it, would build in the 
sandy gorge or upon the overflowing valley. 

We have seen a recent illustration of this truth in 
the terrible disaster of Johnstown and other locali- 
ties swept by the awful floods of 1889. The break- 
ing of a great dam above the city carried off" hundreds 
of houses, destroyed three thousand lives, and eight- 
een million dollars' worth of property. Every thing 
in the valley was devastated, while the buildings on 
the hills were untouched and not a life lost. So at 
Johnstown, IN". Y., more recently — a strange coinci- 
dence of two cities having the same name, damaged 
alike by floods in the same season — and so of Xenia, 
Ohio, a year or two ago. , 

Often, in this country and in others, many people 
are compelled in our cities to build in the valleys and 
hollows and along the river-banks, but they have to 
risk the flood, however unwise and precarious the sit- 
uation, by necessity, 'No wise man, however, where 
he was not forced by circumstances to locate, would 
build his house in the sandy valley, or in the creek or 
river bottom, when he might know that sooner or 
later he would be swept away by the flood. The 
fool alone would be guilty of such a folly; and yet 
there are thousands of just such fools in the world. 

A certain village located at the foot of Vesuvius 
has been destroyed fourteen times, and yet successive 
generations continue to repeat the folly and risk the 
destruction which will some time certainly follow, un- 



390 HOUSE ON A EOCK. 

less old Yesuvius has exliaustecl her fiery bowels of 
wrath — not of compassion. There is a village in the 
Alps located under a huge precipice of hanging 
rock, and this great rock has been leaning farther 
and farther toward the village for years; and yet 
these villagers live and eat and work and sleep as 
comfortably beneath their impending doom as if that 
terrible bowlder would never fall. Just so fools build 
and fools live under the threatening doom of that 
Rock, every day, against which to stumble they shall 
be broken to pieces, and whicn to fall upon them shall 
grind them into powder. 

The wise man builds his house upon some elevated 
place; digs deep and gets a good foundation, and if 
he cannot find a rock, he puts a rock beneath his ed- 
ifice, for a basal support. This is the figure of the 
man who (1) hears the words of Jesus aright, and (2) 
does them according to his hearing. It is one thing to 
hear them, another thing to hear and heed them with 
a good understanding; and it is quite another and a 
better thing to do them. There are a multitude of 
" way-side " hearers, a large number of " stony- 
ground " and " thorny-ground " heeders, but there 
are but few "good-ground" believers and doers ac- 
cording to the word and the will of God. These lat- 
ter alone bring forth fruit to perfection — some thirty, 
some sixty, some a hundred fold, according to ca- 
pacity and opportunity — and these alone are the wise 
and well-to-do hearers and doers of the word of God. 
These alone will be saved by grace at last and re- 
warded for their works; for these alone have the wise, 
the "understanding," the "honest," the "good" 
heart of that wonderful parable of the sower. These 
not only sow in the common soil of the human heart, 



HOUSE OX A ROCK. 391 

as the others do, but all the conditions of good sow- 
ing are added. The stones are piled out of the way, 
the thorns are plucked up, the fallow gi;ound is bro- 
ken by the Holy Spirit, and the soil is penetrated, 
without obstacle, by the seeds of eternal truth and 
divine life. These go down to bed-rock upon which 
to build, and their edifice is erected upon the solid 
foundation of Christ, the Rock of Ages — " the Rock 
that is higher than I" and deeper than earth. 

It is not a surface and sandy foundation, and the 
work erected thereupon is not an unsubstantial air- 
castle, so often built in delusion upon the illusive and 
false foundation of mere religious fancy. The true 
hearer and doer of God's word is a solid builder upon 
a solid foundation, recognizing that there is no other 
name but Christ under heaven, given among men, 
whereby we can be saved — no other foundation which 
we can lay than that already laid, which is Christ. 
Mohammed, Confucius, Buddha, will not do for foun- 
dations; the law of Moses and the philosophy of Soc- 
rates will not do for saving creeds; the systems of 
Josejoh Smith, Swedenborg, Sandeman, and others 
will not do for guides to eternal life. 

How firm a foundation, ye saints of tlie Lord, 
Is laid for your faith in his excellent word! 

I always love to sing that splendid hymn, written by 
Edward Mote : 

' My hope is built on nothing less 

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness. 

On the other hand, the foolish builder erects his 
house upon the sand. He is a hearer of God's word, 
but he is a doer not. If he believes Christ, he takes 
him as a formal and theoretical Saviour; and in his 



392 HOUSE ox A EOCK. 

so-called belief of the truth he puts the sacrameuts 
before the blood of Christ and in order to the grace 
of God. The minister, the ordinance, the Church, 
are his saviors at last; and Jesus Christ is only a 
Mediator through the mmediators of human tradi- 
tion and superstition thrust between God and the faith 
of the immortal soul. This is putting the signs of sal- 
vation before the salvation itself, and stopping, neces- 
sarily, at the sign — ^just as a man gets to a sign-board 
five miles from town, imagining that the sign- board 
is the town; and this is building on the sand, and not 
on the Rock, even in Christianity. These hear the 
word and do it not in God's way, nor according to 
God's will; and salvation by Christ must be immedi- 
ately through faith in Christ, the building afterward 
and upon Christ. The~ blinded ritualist or formalist 
proposes to build before he gets to Christ, and this is 
building on the sandiest foundation of the most illu- 
sive delusion. 

The rationalist builds upon an airy Christ and pays 
no attention to forms and ceremonies. The ritualist 
believes too much, the rationalist too little; and ei- 
ther might as well not believe at all ; for proving too 
much is the same as proving too little, and going too 
far is the same as coming short. The poor rational- 
ist hears God's word, knows of Christ, but he trans- 
forms him into a good man, a model and perfect 
character, an infallible teacher appointed of God, 
and salvation is without the atonement of blood and 
without the direct aid of the Holy Spirit. A man 
saves himself, under this system and model of a per- 
fect pattern, by ethical culture; and this is but an- 
other sandy foundation upon which thousands build 
their hopes of eternal life. They are hearers, but do- 



HOUSE OX A KOCIv. 393 

ers not of the truth; and their house, like that of the 
ritualist, will fall in the flood of the great day, and 
great will be the fall of it, for it is apparently a very 
substantial and beautiful building. It looks grand to 
human eyes, but it is an air-castle in God's sight, and 
it has nothing but a quicksand foundation. 

There are quite a number of others building on the 
sand who hear and do not the word of God. A dy- 
ing Mason said recently, when asked about his soul: 
"It is all well with me; there is nothing too good in 
the gift of God for a good Mason." So speak thou- 
sands of Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, 
Knights of Honor, moralists, Pharisees, and the like. 
They know of Jesus, that he died to save sinners, that 
he came to save the lost, that his word proves all to he 
lost; but these men find iio need for a Redeemei-, a 
Mediator, a Daysman, to stand between them and God. 

Their good works, their moral characters, their fan- 
cied goodness, stand as Mediator and Saviour. ]S"o, 
indeed; they do not need salvation by grace. They 
are not lost at all. Heaven belongs to them of right. 
God is under obligations to ilmn; and if they have 
ever done wrong, they keep a debit and credit ac- 
count Avith the great God, in which their good deeds 
overbalance their bad deeds. This makes Jesus 
Christ unnecessary for them; and if he died for any- 
body, he did not die for them. They know and rec- 
ognize him as a Saviour, perhaps, for drunkards 
and blackguards; good for women and children too, 
but not worth a cent to a good Mason, Odd Fellow, 
moralist, or Pharisee. They never need even to 
pray, except to thank God and congratulate them- 
selves that they are not as bad as other men, and 
that such good men as themselves are in the world 



394 HOUSE oisr a eock. 

and will people heaven in company with the angels! 
The Bible is an old curiosity-shop to them, prayer 
and preaching- and Chnrches are good moral institu- 
tions, but they need no Jesus as a Saviour and Re- 
deemer, xill this is bmlding on the sinking sand; 
and of all the men who will go down darkest and 
deepest beneath the overwhelming flood of the last 
great day, it will be this self-deceived class of peo- 
ple. They build to themselves pretty houses, but 
they have no foundation; and in the day of judgment 
we shall want a foundation rather than the building 
erected upon it. 

The wise man's house may not be so beautiful and 
unique, but its foundation will stand. He will be 
upon a Rock. He may have put some " wood, hay, 
stubble " into his building, the loss of which he will 
suffer by the fire — yea, he himself may be " saved so 
as by fire; " but he shall be saved, nevertheless, be- 
cause his foundation shall stand. The foolish man 
may put some " gold, silver, precious stones," into his 
building — most excellent works within themselves; 
but even these he shall lose, because his building shall 
go with his false and unsubstantial foundation. Give 
me the good foundation and let my building be ever 
so humble and crude and worthless. 

On what foundation do yon build, neighbor, 

Your hopes for the future fair? 
Do your walls reach down to the rock below, 

And rest securely there? 

Alas! what folly 'tis to build, neighbor, 

A mansion so fair, so grand, 
With its costly walls and its lofty towers. 

On sin's delusive sand! 




BIG "I" AND LITTLE "YOU." 



EFORE yon is a picture which I think suf- 
ficiently suggests the subject for discus- 
sion. I need not stop to explain the il- 
lustration. AVe have all seen something of 
this character a thousand times in life — big " I " 
and little "you " — and if not sufficiently delin- 
eated and attitudinized, yet so apparent as to mean 
what our picture is intended to express. These big 
folks are looking down Avith contempt upon the little 
ones, and the little ones are looking up with mingled 
wonder and chagrin upon the big ones; and so it is 
and ever has been and will ever be until we reach the 
other world. There the picture in multitudes of in- 
stances will be changed, if not I'eversed, and in many 
an instance Dives will call for Lazarus, who used to 
lie, in poverty and full of sores, at the rich man's 
gate, feeding upon the rich man's crumbs and minis- 
tered to by the rich man's dogs. Whether in hell or 
heaven, however, nobody will have the big "I" or lit- 
tle " you," for, whatever the differences then, there will 
be too much of business on hand, whether of a happy 
or an unpleasant nature, to be looking at our distinc- 
tion in weal or woe. 

N^ot unfrequently we meet people on the street or 
in the social and collective gatherings of our fellow- 

(397) 



398 Bia "l" AXD LITTLE "YOU." 

men who sway the lofty airs of self-importance and 
seem to imagine that the Avhole earth belongs to them, 
even in republican America; and they look down with 
sneering and snarling contempt npon every thing and 
everybody considered beneath their self-assumed dig- 
nity. We recognize repeatedly that some people have 
got the big " I " and the little " yon," and " got it bad," 
if my polite and courteous friends will permit me to 
employ a little forcible and pungent slang — a thing I 
only do by permission, according to the demands of 
the subject which requires justice. 

Of course there is a difference among men. All 
men are equal before God and in the light of liberty 
and law — at least, supposed to be — in this country. 
Intellectual 1}', socially, and circumstantially, however, 
we all differ, as the trees, hills, and rivers differ, or as 
the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. We 
can't make all men wise and good alike, cultured and 
refined alike, rich and well circumstanced alike, high 
and honorable alike; and we have no right to force 
any man to choose his companions or partners in busi- 
ness or social relationships. IS^aturally " birds of a 
feather flock together." Learning and ignorance are 
not congenial, and so of wealth and jDoverty, refine- 
ment and booi'ishness, religion and iniquity, virtue and 
vice. Incongruities and opposites cannot be driven 
to the doctrine of social equality in the afi'airs and re- 
lationships of men. Congeniality and the fitness of 
things constitute, the fundamental laAV upon which all 
confidential and harmonious association among human 
beings or any other beings is based. Under no other 
condition could we be made to appreciate and enjoy 
each other's company on earth, in hell, or in heaven. 

But while we are thus arbitrarily independent of 



BlGr "l" AXD LITTLE "YOU." 399 

each other we are mutually and morally interdepend- 
ent from every other stand-point in life, and no one 
human being can afford to look down upon an- 
other with contempt and disdain. We are to pity the 
fallen and lost even as Christ did, and so far as the cir- 
cumstances or inherent differences among us are con- 
cerned we are ever to remember that it Avas God who 
made us to differ. Every man and woman, honest 
and upright, doing the best they can with what they 
have, is filling the sphere ordained of God; and what- 
ever the differences between them and us, created by 
conditions and circumstances, we must feel that be- 
fore God they are our equals in fidelity and merit. To 
whom much is given of him will much be required, 
and vice versa, and we shall find that for equal fidelity 
God will award equal honor, whatever the differences 
in gifts and talents. " Well done, good and faithful 
servant," will be the divine plaudit which will come 
to Mary, wiio did " what she could," as well as to Paul 
with his hundred talents utilized. God's lines of 
judgment, in this respect, cross all the lines of human 
decision, and our rules of reckoning and honor will 
have no weight at the judgment-seat of Christ. 

We should remember that, upon this point of mut- 
ual and moral dependence, the man behind the plow- 
handles, " Paddy with his spade," the poor woman 
running the sewing-machine, the engineer and the 
fireman, the hod - carrier and the wood - cutter, are 
worth as much to society, business, government, edu- 
cation, and religion as the Governor, the Congress- 
man, the preacher, the millionaire, and the gentleman 
and lady who live in stone fronts and ride in car- 
riages driven by liveried flunkeys. Here and in the 
house of God "the rich and the poor meet together: 
26 



400 BIG "l" AXD LITTLE 



the Lord is the maker of them all." God did not 
make us all alike, nor in this world to occupy the 
same position; but according to his law of universal 
variety and diversity, threaded by the golden woof of 
unity and harmony, he has made us to differ, and yet 
to be dependent upon one another. The foot has no 
right to stump the toe, the hand no right to cut the 
finger, the eye to right to mock the lids, the nose no 
right to snub the lips, the lips no right to curl at the 
teeth. Every position or work in life is a trust from 
God, according to condition, and every man and 
woman, of whatever elevation, should look with a 
sense of profound honor and recognition upon the low- 
est man in the lowest calling doing his duty. The man 
or the woman below me who makes the bread I eat, 
the clothes I wear, the house I live in, the car I ride 
in, the street I walk on, is my best friend on earth. 
We are mutually dependent upon each other, and I 
should feel myself meaner than the brute to despise 
the boot-black who polishes my shoes, or to refuse rec- 
ognition and courtesy to any honest and faithful hu- 
man being in the humblest calling of this life. 

More than this, we should remember that the whole 
world is akin, that the God who made us to differ is 
our common Father, and that Jesus Christ is our Elder 
Brother. This is especially true spiritually, and it is 
true naturally and in the flesh. For Christ's sake we 
are debtors to all the world " made of one blood," as 
the apostle spake of himself. To scorn one of my fel- 
low-beings because of his lowly condition is to scorn 
God and Jesus Christ, especially so if I claim to be 
a Christian and profess to love God; and such a pro- 
fessor of the Christian religion is a hypocrite and a 
liar, according to the loving John. I tell you that the 



BIG 



AND LITTLE " YOU." 401 



gospel of divinity is a delusion held by the man who 
does not recognize and practice the gospel of human- 
ity. It is this double gospel which creates the mis- 
sionary and the evangelist and the philanthropist, and 
the grandest beings who ever lived were such men as 
Howard and Eaikes and Judson, such women as 
Florence Nightingale. To such the hospital, the lazar- 
house, the heathen jungle, the poor children, the dens 
of vice and poverty, the hovels of misery have been 
welcome places, and such have reached the clearest 
and loftiest apprehension of divine and human rela- 
tionships. Love is the genius of Christianity; those 
who have reached the loftiest heights and the deepest 
depths of this principle, however great in talent and 
position, have been the least and humblest at God's 
feet and at the feet of helpless and depraved human- 
ity. Like their Master, they have washed the world's 
feet, and thus they have become the world's grand el- 
evator, both in civilization and religion. They have 
remembered the pit from which God digged them, the 
rock from which he hewed them; and, recognizing our 
universal equality in sin, our common elevation to the 
salvation and glory of heaven, they have cast them- 
selves at the feet of the lowly and lost millions in or- 
der to best honor God and best save the world. Such 
men and women have never known the big "I" and 
little "you" in any relationship of life. 

But now let us be somewhat more explicit and il- 
lustrative. Let us classify a little and see something 
more tangibly put of those who have the big " I " 
disease, who look down upon those they think beneath 
them, and who scorn poverty, ignorance, and helpless- 
ness as execrable. 

1. There is the intellectual pedant. He is a dab- 



402 BIG "l" AIs^D LITTLE "YOU." 

bier in learning, and has never learned what a fool he 
is in the light of wisdom. It is not every unlettered 
man who is a fool ; for those who know how little they 
do know, and act with discretion and courtesy, are 
wise accordilig to their degree of mind and culture. 
"When the young man in college reaches " Sopho- 
more" he generally " knows it all; " and I wish here 
to illustrate the difference between the pedant and 
the philosopher by a poetic application of mine to 
"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star:" 

'Twas at the window stood tlie boy, 

One beanteoiTs, sparkling night; 

His spirit glowed, enrapt with joy, 

And filled with child's delight. 
He viewed the skies bestud with gold, 

In wild profusion laid, 
And through the spangled dome of old 

His childish fancy played. 
He marked the gems of lustrous glow, 

And fixed his pensive eyes, 
And oft the mystic grandeur drew 

The child's increased surprise : 
" Twinkle, twinkle, little star. 
How I wonder what you are!" 
The boy had older grown to years, 

With toils of studied lore. 
Had mounted up through sweat and tears 

From " Fresh " to " Sophomore." 
He viewed again the sparkling dome, 

Each star he knew by name; 
And, wise above the ken of home. 

His father put to shame. 
About these wondrous orbs he knew 

It all — their size and mold. 
Their distance far, and people too. 

Their composition told. 
" Twinkle, twinkle, little star. 
Know exacflij what you are! " 



BI& "l" AND LITTLE "YOU," 403 

The boy had grown to manhood's prime, 

To philosophic age, 
Among the stars that brightest shine 

An astronomic sage. 
That sparkling dome he often swept 

With telescopic eye. 
To know it all he would have wept 

With spectroscopic sigh. 
He stood again at window old 

As when the little boy. 
And np the starry night and cold 

He mused with childish joy; 
" Twinkle, twinkle, little star. 
How I WONDER what you are!" 
So Webster felt when he graduated and, it is said, 
tore his diploma in two with the expression: "Gen- 
tlemen, yon shall hear from me again." So I^ewton 
felt as like a little child picking up shells upon the 
shore, with the grand ocean of discovery still spread 
out before him. Great and wise men feel little, and 
know nothing of the " big head," the big " I " and lit- 
tle " you." The noble and learned man, unless want- 
ing in common sense, is ever condescending and help- 
ful to others. True wisdom is meek and lowly, the 
most simple and child-like thing in the world. 

2. jSTotice the self-righteous swell. " I am holier 
than thou," and he is about as much affected with the 
big " I " disease as any other man in the universe. 
"Witness the proud Pharisee and the poor publican in 
the temple. The one looked down with contempt and 
horror upon the other, thanked God that he did so 
much for good, and that he was not as other men were; 
while the other would not so much as lift his face to 
God, but smote upon his broken heart and said : " God 
be merciful to me, a sinner." The Pharisee thought 
God under obligations to him, and justified himself; 



404 BI& "l" AND LITTLE "YOU." 

while the poor publican condemned himself, that he 
might be justified of God, Some of these " holiness " 
people, these perfectionists, show equal satisfaction 
with themselves, seem to feel that they are special 
pets of the Lord, and they look down and rail out 
npon those of us whom they consider only in the 
"border land" of religious ignorance. Worse than 
all this is that austere, ascetic, haughty, seclusive, and 
long-faced hypocrite, sometimes seen even in this 
democratic age of looseness or infidelity, who scorns 
every thing beneath him which he calls " common and 
unclean." People of other denominations are unfit 
to sit in his pew, and one-half of his own denomina- 
tion is beneath his contempt. I heard a lady of a 
certain Church, a few years ago, when the people of 
another Church were mentioned, exclaim: " O the 
wretched things ! " And she caught hold of her dress 
and shook it, in imitation, I suppose, of the ancient 
Pharisees when they clutched their garments and rent 
them at the sight of something desecrating and horri- 
ble. I thought she had a bad case of religious big 
" I " and little " you." Of all the places in the world I 
have often felt that no one should have this disease in 
religion; but there are only two places in the universe 
where people do not have the swell-head: one of them 
is heaven and the other is hell, as already suggested. 
3. Observe the social snob. Great heavens, forbid ! 
The peacock, in the airy realms of fancy and vanity, 
struts and spreads his tail and squawks in vain. The 
snob is seldom, if ever, a person of culture and refine- 
ment. This class generally belongs to the cod-fish, 
the shoddy, the galvanized aristocracy, which builds 
fine houses and has elegant furniture, and then pur- 
chases an imitation library. It is said that one of 



AXD LITTLE "YOU." 405 



them once bought a real set of fine and costly books, 
and when one row of them was too long for the shelf 
he ordered the carpenter to saw off the top of the 
books so as to fit the library! This was just as good 
luck as any to the owner, for the books were worth- 
less to him, and only fit for show. However, he should 
have had taste enough for respectable display even in 
his useless library. 

It is usually a little money, without brains or edu- 
cation, which makes the social snob; and, with the 
artificial and superficial maxims and customs of so- 
called society, he, she, or rather it, is turned into the 
biggest fool which stalks the earth. Walking the 
streets or riding in liveried phaeton or visiting the 
stores, where the clerks are required to pull down all 
the goods in the house, or at social gatherings or in 
the house of God — all the same and everywhere — the 
characteristic assumption of airs, the haughty bear- 
ing, the curled lip, the cynical sneer, the swing and 
swell of the body, tell you in unmistakable terms that 
the snob is abroad. Some of them belong to the 
Church; but Mrs. Burnett — now called Mrs. Hiirnette 
— doesn't recognize old Deacon Thompson, who built 
her house, and old Mrs. Johnson, who made the dress 
she wears. She belongs to a "first-class Church," 
|ind she wOuld be better satisfied if " those poor trash " 
were in the "second-class Church" over on Clabber 
Avenue. She expects to go to heaven, I suppose ; but 
lioW in the name of common sense she expects to as- 
sociate with her carpenter and dress-maker there must 
puzzle her social ideas terribly. It might be safe to 
say, however, that she need not trouble herself upon 
that subject if piety or humility or humanity in any 
form is to constitute one of the characteristic evi- 



406 BIG- "l" A]^fD LITTLE 



deuces of Christianity. She wouldn't recognize Jesns 
and his Galilean fishermen at all if they should ap- 
pear as they used to do in olden time. 

Let me say that you never catch blooded and refined 
stock in this crowd, nor will you catch common sense 
and piety there. The "Washingtons and the Lees and 
the Jefi'ersons would not let a negro outdo them in 
politeness, and it is said that the nobility of England 
are far more condescending and courteous than the 
snobbish middle classes. High-born manhood and 
womanhood, common sense, purity, and piety never 
strut nor swell nor play the pedant. The dude and 
the dudine never belong to these genuine common- 
sense and meritorious classes. The young man and 
woman who are ashamed of their plain old father and 
mother or, of their " country cousins " may be very 
" tony " and reserved and superb to outward appear- 
ances, but within all is hollow or rotten. I like dig- 
nity, self-respect, noble bearing, cultivated and re- 
fined social life ; but deliver me from the galvanized and 
shoddy sham of the big "I" and little "you" circle. 
I do not object to wealth or splendor or magnifi- 
cence with a soul in it; and when it is adorned with 
culture and piety — not so often the case — it is just as 
useful and good as it is ornamental and attractive. 
"We all admire grand and noble men and women, and 
whether socially or otherwise related to such, we do 
not feel disparaged or overshadoAved by them. How- 
ever big your " I " is, young people, however sipall 
my " you," never show that you know it. At far- 
thest, don't let the swell-head go beyond your teens. 




n 



,A 



'■■I 



.,v;; ' 



^J «■'!>/;■• 




THE DEUIL R-FISHmG. 



picture speaks for itself. His Satanic Maj- 
esty is sitting upon the bluffs of what may 
be called the " Devil's Lake " — a title 
very frequently given to certain bodies of 
water in this and perhaps in other countries. 
He has set out his fishing-rods, as is seen, all 
around the beach ; and, with his hooks variously bait- 
ed, he is angling for his game, according to his voca- 
tion. In the latter part of this sketch I will tako up his 
fishing in detail as illustrated in the picture beforo you. 
In order to appreciate the devil, it must not be for- 
gotten that he is a person — not a mere ideal, and not 
the mere personification of evil. He is not a mere 
influence floating about in the air, nor cultivated in 
the heart. Every man is not, 'per se, his own devil, as 
some maintain. The world in which we live is not a 
devil, nor a multitude of devils. There are three 
distinct enemies of the soul — the world, the flesh, and 
the devil — in collusion and combination with each 
other, but one only of these enemies is the devil. 
He is an identical, intelligent, artful, subtle, and 
mighty being, and he is assisted by an innumerable 
company of devils, or demons, like himself. He is 
distinguished by the pronouns "he " and "him" and 
"his," and the Bible, from beginning to end, repre- 

(409) 



410 THE DEVIL A-FISHIISTG. 

sents him personally, actively, and intelligently in the 
work of sin. 

When we take the case of Job, or the Saviour's 
temptation, or when seen falling like lightning from 
heaven nncler the preaching of the disciples, or when 
entering a herd of swine, or when possessing and 
tearing a lunatic, Satan appears before us in all his 
individuality and personality. He is called " the 
prince of darkness," " the prince of the power of 
the air," "Satan," "adversary," "liar," "serpent," 
"dragon," and other names to distinguish his per- 
sonality and character; and he is represented as go- 
ing up and down, to and fro, in the earth — "going 
about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may de- 
vour." He tempted Adam and Eve in the garden of 
Eden, and this was the first time he went a-fishing — 
baiting his hook with the forbidden fruit. He dis- 
puted with the angel over the body of Moses, and 
among the last utterances of the Saviour was that 
Satan cometh and " findeth nothing " in him. He is 
called the " evil one " — not evil, nor an evil jDrinciple 
itself; and he is principally and emphatically the great 
" tempter " of mankind. From this idea we draw the 
picture of him a-fishing. 

Let me say, right here, that the devil has a price 
upon the head of perhaps every human being, and 
this price is the bait he throws to every victim im- 
paled _ upon his hook. Every man has one or more 
weak points in the fortress of his nature and charac- 
ter, and no one is any stronger against the assaults of 
the arch-fiend than at his weakest point. Every man 
has the weight of evil upon him and the " easily be- 
setting," the well- circumstanced " sin; " and even the 
Christian has to lay these aside to run well and sue- 



THE DEVIL A-nSHIXG. 411 

cessfully upon the race-course for eternal honors. Sa- 
tan well knows our nature and all our weak points — 
sometimes infinitely better than ^Ye know them our- 
selves — and it is through the weak place that he 
thrusts his temptations or makes his assaults. 

What would be a price upon one man's head would 
not be upon another. A very small bait catches some 
people. A trout seldom bites at an ang-le-worm, and 
a sucker never gets caught with a minnow. A mud- 
cat will take any thing, and a shark bites at larger 
bait. What is true of fishes is true of men, and it is 
seldom, if ever, that you will find one who will not 
bite, in a state of nature at least, at some time or oth- 
er, if the circumstances are fiivorable and the right 
kind of bait is thrown to him. One man would not 
be tempted with hundreds of dollars, but the thou- 
sands would take him into the devil's net. Some men 
cannot be caught with money at all, but women or 
wine would lead to their ruin. Thousands are gov- 
erned neither by lust nor appetite, but pride and am- 
bition will bait them to destruction. There are those 
who have neither lust nor appetite, neither ambition 
nor pride, whom vanity and fancy and pleasure draw 
away into the airy realms of a frivolous and useless 
life, and who let slip the good of time and the glory 
of God for the butterfly bait of the devil's smallest 
gratifications. 

Some of God's people sell out, for the time being, 
at Satan's price upon every human head. David and 
Samson and Solomon were baited and fell sadly into 
the devil's trap, and so of thousands before and since. 
Joseph was baited, but he didn't bite; neither did 
Daniel and the Hebrew children, when offered the 
king's meat and wine in the palace of Babylon. 



412 THE DEVIL A-FISHING. 

There are but few of even the best of God's children 
who do not bite at something, some time or other, and 
in this country tliey occasionally go from the Church 
and the Sunday-school to the penitentiary for embez- 
zling bank-funds under Satan's bait of speculation — 
one of the biggest and most tempting he ever offers 
to good people. It is said of Dr. Watts, the great- 
est of hymn-writers, that he was thought to be abso- 
lutely free from pride and vanity. A certain infidel 
had watched him and made his boasts that he could 
detect the weak place in Dr. Watts's character. He 
met him and tried often to tempt him with flattery. 
He told him of his splendid abilities, his fine charac- 
ter, his noble reputation, his popularity as a writer, 
the immortality of his productions, but he never could 
detect any change in the tone or countenance of the 
Doctor. At last one day he said to him : " Dr. Watts, 
you are the plainest man I ever saw, to be as great a 
man as you are." It is said that the Doctor's face 
crimsoned, and the infidel had at last touched his 
weak spot. His pride was his plainness, and upon this 
point he had reserved his weakness. 

So it may be said of the best, perhaps, who ever 
lived that they have some soft place in their nature 
w^hich, unguarded, will open the heart to the subtle 
approach of Satan. " Let him that thinketh he stand- 
eth take heed lest he fall." There are none safe away 
from the feet of Jesus and living out of the fear of 
God. If the best Christian of earth is in danger, 
what of the unconverted world? It is safe to say that 
there is not a man out of Christ who has not the 
devil's hook in his mouth. He may be honest, up- 
right, moral, and perfect in all his external conduct 
before men, but if he is neglecting or rejecting sal- 



THE DEVIL A-FISHING. 413 

vatioii, he has been baited with the delusion of his 
self-righteousness or of procrastination or of infidel- 
ity or something which will destroy his immortal soul. 
Satan has him angled and well in hand, and will hold 
him, if his line is not broken, just as effectually as 
the worst of sinners he has ever baited to ruin. 

Let us now notice more closely the details of our 
picture. 

1. There is the hook of lust, as seen in the wounded 
or broken heart held in the mouth of a well-dressed 
dude, wearing a stove-pipe hat and a three-story col- 
lar. This is the bait with which Satan catches mul- 
titudes of men and women, especially the young; and 
perhaps there is no sin so absolute and radical in its 
effects upon the heart. When conscience is not 
killed it often results in insanity; otherwise it pet- 
rifies every sensibility and putrefies every affection. 
Many a woman is dragged down to degradation and 
damnation by the "masher" and the seducer, the 
most infamous scoundrel that walks the face of the 
earth; and full many a young man is held in hell by 
his feet, clutched by a fallen woman, once the pride 
and joy of a happy home. 

2. ISTotice the hook of the hoUle in the mouth of a 
drunkard floating helpless upon the waves of the 
" Devil's Lake." About a million of these victims 
of the devil's hook die in the world every year; and 
there is no hoolc which holds so fast and fatal as this, 
once fixed in the mouth of a burning appetite. The 
bottle hook is almost universal, and it first catches 
our boys in their teens, as it is flung out in the tens 
of thousands of open saloons which flourish in this 
country — licensed and legalized by law and boldly 
and ably supported by the two great national political 



41J: THE DEVIL A-FISHIXa. 

parties of America. Fishing is only allowed in cer- 
tain waters at certain times of the year; bnt the devil 
is licensed by law and sustained by public sentiment 
to fish for the youths of America at all times and 
seasons of the year — in the saloons. 

3. Then there is the '■'■almighty dollar'''' hook. This 
is the hook of avarice, and there are thousands, per- 
haps millions of men, led by the nose to hell ,under 
the temptation to love money — " the root of all evil." 
Mammon is worshiped as the greatest of all the 
world gods; and already in free and independent 
America fifty thousand persons own seventy per cent, 
of the wealth of the country, while the laborer toils 
for a pittance and the consumer groans under a " rob- 
ber taritf." The devil has not only hooked in his 
millions of men with this bait, but he has hooked in 
whole nations with pride and luxury, to the ruin of 
liberty and to the destruction of vital religion. Plu- 
tarchy is one of the perils of our country, as it has 
been the curse of other lands, and it would seem as 
if the devil was about to hook in the whole of JSTorth 
America. 

4. I^otice the butterfly hook. " Old W\ck " has 
Miss Sallie well in hand under the bait of vanity. She 
thinks only of society — the dance, the theater, and 
progressive euchre — and she lives only a butterfly 
existence. Flounces and curls and paint and chalk 
and rings and bracelets and ribbons and feathers and 
flowers and chitchat and nonsense and giggling 
are worth more to her than all the glory of heaven 
and the life of eternity. I imagine the devil laughs 
fit to kill himself, or at least to split his sides, when 
he catches a thing so silly as to bite at a butterfly. 
It is such a cheap sell-out to the devil. It is such a 



THE DEVIL A-EISHIXG. 415 

small price paid out for fire and brimstone; and yet 
thousands of poor, silly, giddy, gay, and fashionable 
people are bartering their souls every year to the 
world, the flesh, and the devil for the cheap enjoy- 
ment of social dissipation and personal display. 

5. Please look at that old glutton who is hooked 
onto a ham of bacon. His god is his belly ,^ and his 
only dream is of beefsteak and mutton, soups and 
stews, fish and oysters, ham and eggs, pies and pud- 
dings — things finer or coarser, according to the style 
of his menu, or bill of fare. If you want to get at 
his heart or his pocket-book, just appeal to his stom- 
ach. He has the dyspepsia and the gout and rheu- 
matism and what not, but no doctor nor preacher can 
turn him from his gormandizing appetite, and the devil 
will get him at last through one of the beastliest 
temptations which ever entrapped a fool. Fortunate- 
ly, this is not a universal sin, from the fact that but 
few, comparatively, are able to pay for it; but Satan 
will have, in the end, not a few of this kind whom he 
has fattened for the slaughter of death. 

6. Again, notice that fellow who is caught with the 
pack of cards hook. He is the gambler, and under 
his head may be classed that whole fraternity who try 
to live by getting something for nothing upon the 
hazard of games and speculations. They do not live 
by the law of that labor which gains an honest living 
in the sweat of the honest face, as God commands. 
They " haste to be rich," many of them, and God 
says that they "shall not be innocent." The card- 
pack, the lottery-wheel, the pool, the craps, keno, the 
billiard-table — all of these are sweeping their thou- 
sands into sin, misfortune, and hell every day. Gam- 
bling has increased, it is said, over one hundred pei' 

27 



416 THE DEVIL A-FISHIXG. 

cent, in ten years in this country, and it would seem 
as if the devil were about to hook in the whole nation 
as one great, big, huge gambler. 

7. I want you now to look at that man with a 
crooked and angry serpent hooked into his malicious 
mouth. He is the representative of scandal and slan- 
der and murder — the man who is jealous and envious, 
full of malignity and hate; ever ready to stab your 
character, injure your business, and take your life. 
The devil knows how to bait him, as well as all the 
balance; and this is the vilest worm he ever puts upon 
a hook. Every day we read of vituperation and re- 
venge and murder, and our country has reached the 
point — especially in the South — when lynch and mob 
law dominate justice. Public sentiment is too cor- 
rupt and weak to sustain the judge on the bench, and 
a petit jury has become the shame and the disgrace of 
the age of civilization which gave it birth. There is 
but one set of laws now which seem capable of exe- 
cution — those which jyrotect your pocket-book; but when 
it comes to life and character, men generally conclude 
now that the shortest and surest way to j ustice is the 
revolver or the lyncher's rope. Alas that the serpent 
cannot be scotched according to law! but so it is in 
our sunny land. 

There are other kinds of hooks baited for infidelity, 
self- righteousness, ritualism, hypocrisy, ambition, 
amusement, indecision, melancholy, lying — every sin 
of which human nature is tempted; but I have not 
time to discuss them in detail. May God bless this 
lecture to you all, and may you ever see my picture 
before you when the devil is baiting you to ruin with 
any of the temptations of life! 



Little mb Big End of Life's Horr. 




HAYE drawn for tins occasion two horns, rep- 
resenting the g-cneral conrse of snccessfnl 
and nnsnccessfnl life; and this sketch is 
based npon one of the trite maxims which 
we so often hear: "^ you wish to come out at the 
hig end of the horn, you must go in at the little encV 
Into the little end of the upper horn yon see a man 
going. He is of small stature, and is squeezing in. It 
is not much trouble, however, to get into the mouth- 
piece of the horn, for it is always larger than the neck. 
The great ditficnlty lies in squeezing through the neck 
into the gradual swell of the horn, Avhich grows larger 
and larger until you reach the big end. The ladder 
which reaches up to the month is called education, and 
so this represents the early training* essential to en- 
trance upon the business of life. The neck of the 
horn is marked experience, and this is the difficult part 
and period throng-h which every business of life is to 
pass. The big end of this horn is marked success, and 
this is the end reached when the finished man comes 
out. You will observe that the man comes out much 
enlarged in size — the same little fellow who was so 
small upon his entrance. He went in upon a small 
scale, he came through the difiicnlt neck of experi- 
ence, and he comes out successful and fully developed 

(419) 



420 LITTLE AND BI& END OF lIfe's HOKN. 

according to capacity and according to the size of the 
horn his caliber adapted him to in the business of life. 

In the second horn we see the rule of development 
and success reversed. A great big fellow, so to speak, 
goes in at the big end of the horn, and he comes out 
the little end all shriveled and battered and dilapi- 
dated. He started into business or profession full- 
handed, and without education or experience for his 
calling; and if he does not stay there, as a fellow 
sometimes does when he enters the little end, he goes 
on diminishing in size and importance until he gets 
into the neck of experience and comes out at the 
other and the little end. He gets his experience too 
late, or at the wrong end of the horn; and he comes out 
nobody or nothing, only to descend the ladder of educa- 
tion which the other man ascended before he entered 
the horn at the little end. This second man proves a 
failure, and his life is so far spent, his experience 
comes so late, his energies and ambition are so far ex- 
hausted, and so with his means and resources, that he 
never attempts to recover. The little fellow going in 
at the little end of the horn comes out with flying 
colors and of grand proportions, while the big fellow 
going in at the big end of the horn comes out shrunk 
and shriveled into a pigmy, learning too late the ex- 
perience essential to begin with, if he learns it at all, 
and too old and discouraged perhaps, sometimes too 
proud and incapable, to try the little end of the horn 
by going the other way. 

Let me say right here that the horn represents the 
natural course of development. "We are born by nat- 
ure into the little end of existence. We have to lie 
in the cradle before we can craAvl, and crawl before 
we can walk, babble before we can talk. The man 



LITTLE AND BIG- EJSTD OF LIFE's HORX. 421 

comes from the baby, and thus we grow physically 
through the horn of life from the little to the big end. 
The same is true of our intellectual development, as 
we learn our alphabet before we spell, spell before we 
can read and write, and master grammar and arithme- 
tic before rhetoric and logic. When education is fin- 
ished, of whatever degree or character, we have come 
from the little to the big end of the horn — our horn 
being the size of our capacity, and some people, intel- 
lectually as well as physically, having a much larger 
horn of development than others. 

What is true of the physical and mental is true of 
the moral and spiritual. We do not get to be angels 
and gods at once. However pure and holy a child's 
conception of right and wrong, his knowledge and ex- 
perience are negative rather than positive; and it is 
only through a gradual course of development that 
truth anel righteousness are vitally and practically 
comprehended or applied. The Christian himself is 
born a babe in Christ, and at first he must feed on milk 
instead of meat, grow in grace and knowledge, and 
come up by life-long culture to the stature of man- 
hood in Christ. Paul himself did not claim the per- 
fection of development at any period of life, though 
he boasted of justifying perfection in Christ at all 
times; and, forgetting always the things behind him, 
reaching forth unto the future before him, he ever 
pressed for the prize of God's high calling in Christ. 
It was only at the end of his career that he exulted 
that he had "finished his course" — not even then 
claiming perfection in the light of sanctifying grace. 

These perfectionists — the " holiness " people — put 
me very much in mind of a man going into the big end 
of the horn first, or all at once ; and my observation 



422 LITTLE AXD BIG E?s^D OP LIFE's HORIS^. 

has been that if they come out at all it is at the little 
end. Sanctification is evidently a growth in grace, a 
development from babyhood to manhood, not a sin- 
gle leap to this state by a "second blessing," of which 
the Scriptures seem to know" nothing. Sanctifica- 
tion is the result of culture from the day of the new 
birth to the close of life : (1) by the study of G^d's 
word, (2) by communion with God's Spirit, (3) by the 
exercise of God's work; and if a man will pursue this^ 
culture from the little to the big end of the religious 
horn he will come out as big and as perfect a man as 
he can be made on this side of the grave. Paul went 
in at the little end, and he came out shouting and ex- 
ulting at the big end, just about the biggest man 
Christ ever made in history. He kept the faith, 
fought a good fight, finished his course, and then he 
was ready to be " delivered." 

The unnatural course of development is seen in the 
fellow going in at the big end and coming out at the 
little end of the horn; and the result of such a course 
is simply the reverse of development, or development 
backward or downward. Of this course we see many 
illustrations, as of the other and natural course. 
There's Jim and Sallie. He gets a pretty fair educa- 
tion by hard licks and by observing- and studying the 
world around him, and she learns common sense as 
well as books and how to bake a hoe-cake, milk a cow, 
sweep the floor, and cut out a dress. ]!!^either of them 
have much in the world, but they deteitmine to marry. 
As the young fellow who had nothing said when he 
asked the old man for his daughter, " I've got noth- 
ing but two hands, and they are chuck full of day'& 
work," both of them had energy, zeal, and industry. 
Jim and Sallie got married, and Jim determines to go 



LITTLE AISTD BIG EXD OF LIFE's HORX. 423 

into business, Avhile Sallie determines to run the plain 
little home which Jim and she are able to own. Their 
store is a small one, and their stock is meager, but it 
is paid for. They gradually accumulate and save by 
a rigid economy, and give what they can to their 
Church, which they never neglect. They have entered 
the mouth of the horn pretty easily, and they are now 
going through the little neck of experience, learning 
human nature and business by dint of hard licks, 
making mistakes here and getting deceived there, 
struggling against competition and avoiding extrava- 
gance, and in this little neck of difficulty and trial 
they stay for a few years. After awhile they begin 
to swell in growth, importance, Avisdom, money, means, 
respectability, and honor. The business is increased, 
a new and larger store is bought and owned ; and after 
awhile Jim and Sallie are rich and increased in goods. 
They come out in life's close from the big end of the 
horn, happy, honorable, useful, with a well- trained and 
industrious family, and leave a good name and a rich 
inheritance behind them. 

Take another case. There is young George Gordon 
Reynolds and Miss J^ovella Evangeline Burlinghame. 
They are both rich and trained up to luxury and ease. 
George is fast and ]N"ovel]a is airy and fanciful, and 
both are extravagant. They get married, live in a 
stone front, hire servants, ride in a carriage with a 
driver in livery, have champagne suppers, and run a big 
social schedule. George wants to go into business, 
and he and ]!^ovella are worth fifty thousand dollars. 
There is an old merchant over the way who wants a 
partner, George having lots of money and he having 
lots of experience. They start up a big business, 
hoist a blazing sign, and move off with a flourish of 



42J: LITTLE AXD BIG END OF LIFE's HOKX. 

trumpets under the firm name of " Eeynolds and 
Livingstone." All goes well for awhile, but George 
belongs to the club instead of the Church, runs to 
the theater and the german, drinks fine brandy, 
smokes Havanas, drives fast horses, and sports with 
fine dogs and stub-twist guns, keeps bad company 
and late hours, occasionally goes home to JSTovella late 
at night; and ]Srovella doesn't care much, so George 
keeps the establishment in full blast. After a little 
the house gets in debt and fails. The books are in 
bad shape, but George doesn't know any thing about 
them. An assignment is made, and George comes out 
poor and ruined with the experience, and Mr. Living- 
stone with the cash hid away yonder somewhere un- 
der his hearth-stone. George Gordon and ]^ovella 
Evangeline went in at the big end of the horn, and 
they came out at the little end. They are J^oung 
enough yet to go in at the little end, but they are too 
proud for that; and besides this, they have not learned 
the experience of the little neck in the horn by going 
in the right way according to the true law of devel- 
opment. 

Take two yoimg men at law — Tom Jones and Al- 
exander Huntingdon D'Antignac. Tom is not brill- 
iant, but he sticks to his books, plods along with lit- 
tle cases, gains character and reputation by degrees, 
and gradually grows in means and position. Alexan- 
der is brilliant. He dashes off grandly and gets a big 
case. His eloquence and bearing are quite popular. 
He pops champagne bottles and eats oyster suppers 
with the boys. They run him for the Legislature, and 
he is elected. He goes to the capital, and makes a big 
speech, and gets drunk that night. He swells, and 
then frolics, and then drinks, and then gambles, and 



LITTLE AND BIG EXD OF LIFe's HORX. 425 

then " plays out," and then goes home to resume his 
law practice, which Tom has gobbled up in his ab- 
sence. Alexander goes doAvn and Tom goes up, and 
Tom has gained such a reputation for honesty and in- 
tegrity, for good sense and efficiency, that he is put 
up for Congress in a few years and elected. He final- 
ly goes to the Senate or gets on the Supreme Bench, 
while Alexander has gone to the dogs. Tom went in 
at the little end of the horn, staid in the little neck 
of experience until he began to mature and swell to- 
ward manhood and success, and he finally came out 
grand and flourishing at the big end. Alexander 
went in at the big end, gradually dwindled toward the 
neck of experience at the wrong end of life, and in 
spite of his fine talents and great abilities came out 
all shriveled and bedwarfed and ruined. This is a 
common matter of observatiou everywhere. 

Take the preacher. How often a seminary student 
sails out of his class-room like an eagle and lights on 
the steeple of some big, rich church, only to fail and 
get down to humbler and still humbler work, until he 
dies perhaps unknown to his own denomination ! He 
goes in at the big end, and comes out at the little end 
of the pastoral horn. How difi'erent with that boy 
who feels that he is called of God to preach, takes up 
his Bible, and goes to study, rolls up his sleeves, and 
goes into the backwoods, if necessary, and learns 
wisdom and experience among the people of God, 
among all classes, and in all conditions! How many 
of them have come up gradually to eminence and 
greatness by slow degrees, made by their own efforts 
and experience under God; and who have left behind 
them a work and a name immortal for time and eter- 
nity! Perhaps he worked his way to college and the 



426 LITTLE AXD BIG EXD OP LIFe's HORN^. 

seminary, studied hard to be a preacher and a teacher 
for God's glory and his fellow-man's good, and when 
he went out into the great white harvest-fieilds of la- 
bor he was led of God from one step to another of 
development and position in the ministry nntil he 
reached the top. He commenced right, and was hnm- 
ble and willing to be any thing or nothing for Jesus; 
and this is about the best conception of entering into 
the little end in order to come out of the big end of 
the ministerial horn. 

Look around and see the great and mighty men in 
all the businesses and professions of life. J^Tine times 
out of ten they went into the little end of the horn to 
come out of the big end; and if they entered the big 
end at all, and succeeded, it was simply the little end 
of a very big horn — as the young Yanderbilts and 
others have done, and who were trained to business 
and experience before they inherited their estates. 
Our great and successful merchants, manufacturers, 
lawyers, doctors, preachers, railroad men, editors, 
Avriters, teachers — all of them, more or less, came from 
poverty and obscurity, from country or backwoods 
places; and by the dint of toil, tears, sweat, and expe- 
rience have risen to position and honor. So of our 
inventors and discoverers, our scientists and philoso- 
phers — the Eadses, the Edisons, the Morses, the Frank- 
lins, the Spurgeons, the Talmages, and a host of oth- 
ers — they all came up, more or less, from nothing and 
nobody in the world. 

My friends, do not be in a hurry about the future. 
Commence little and low, go straight and slow, and 
be sure to lay a good foundation before you build 
your house. Get an education first of all. This will 
enable you to get more easily into the mouth of the 



LITTLE a:st> big exd OF lipe's horx. 427 

horn. Do not seek to avoid the tribulation of the 
little neck of experience. Tribulation worketh pa- 
tience, and patience experience, and experience hope; 
and snch a hope through such a development Avill 
bring- you to the big end of the horn and not make 
you ashamed. It takes time to make a man or a busi- 
ness. A mushroom may grow up in a night, but a 
corn-stalk will only reach a big and ripened ear after 
months of rain and culture. You want to grow by 
careful, patient, progressive, cumulative, solid devel- 
opment to the maturity of manhood and life-work. 

In all ages the truly great men of the world have 
been those who came up the ladder of special train- 
ing or education, and learned their business step by 
step, as they developed with it. They gained their 
most valuable knowledge in the cramped neck of ex- 
perience. In squeezing themselves through by dint 
of persistent effort, they discovered their strong and 
weak points of character, and developed those facul- 
ties necessary to lead them to success. 

On the other hand, the young man who begins his 
life-work on a large scale, without a proper founda- 
tion of education, preparation, and experience for 
the business undertaken, is almost sure to fail. It is 
not exaggerating the facts to say at least ninety-five 
per cent, of them will go backward, growing smaller 
instead of developing from the beginning; and, since 
growth is the primal law of nature, any business or 
any life that does not develop or become stronger is 
virtually a failure. 

Parents are too much disposed to cultivate in their 
sons and daughters the belief that they, by virtue of 
their birth, education, position in society, or wealth, 
-are exempted from the necessity of an apprenticeship 



428 LITTLE A]S^D BIG EXD OP LIFe's HORiN'. 

in the first principles of any business. They cannot 
bear to see their offspring struggling through the neck 
of experience in life's horn. They will not stand idly 
by with means of aid at their disposal while their 
promising boy is fighting with old ^'■Ilard Times' It 
would break his spirit and make him doubt his ability 
to cope with the world, they think, to allow him to be 
pressed by a creditor, or for one of his enterprises to 
suffer when they could relieve the conditions. 

Indulgent parent, stop and think; let the boy fight 
his battles whenever and wherever he is able to do so, 
and it will strengthen him. Are you not about to 
help your boy or indulge your daughter where it 
would have ruined you in your young days to have 
been helped or indulged? Look back twenty or for- 
ty years, and you will, no doubt, if you have been 
successful in life, see yourself fighting severer bat- 
tles; but you came out victorious, and you know now 
that your snccess in after life is due to the muscle, 
brawn, confidence, courage, and self-knowledge that 
you gained at that critical period. 

Love your children, certainly, but you ought not to 
let that so direct you in your conduct or manifesta- 
tions toward them as to obscure that divine fiat, "/w 
tJie sweat of thy face sJiatt thou eat tread,'' or to lead them 
to believe that they should or can go through life on 
" flowery beds of ease." Impress them with the fact 
that there is no " royal road " to wealth, honor, or 
worthy fame, except as every individual digs it out 
and builds it for himself as he passes over it. Hang 
up for them in your homes the motto, " Every man 
is the architect of his own fortune," and impress 
them with the idea that whatever aid you may give 
them is but a lever for their use, and unless they are 



LITTLE AXD BIG END OF LIFe's HORN. 429 

prepared by strength and knowledge to use it, it will 
be like a brawny laborer's heavy crow-bar in the 
hands of a young and delicate child — a dangerous 
plaything. 

I would that all the young might know that the 
majority of illustrious men and women have grown 
great in the neck of experience, and with whatever 
blast the big end of the horn may have heralded them 
to the world, the force and power of that blast was 
energized and concentrated in the little neck of ex- 
perience. These eminent personages have left their 
" foot-prints in the sands of time " for your benefit. 
They all went in at the little end of the horn. Do 
not despise the day of small beginnings. Be patient 
in your training under old " Hard Times." He will 
treat you roughly and punish you severely now and 
then, but he will toughen and strengthen every mus- 
cle and faculty. He is a prince of trainers. Have 
courage, be brave and earnest, be patient and per- 
severing, and when you shall have conquered him 
the world will recognize and honor you as an athlete 
in your calling. 

Win your laurels before you wear them, and do not 
be in too much haste. The worst phase of " young 
America's " character is impatience. Ella Wheeler 
has truthfully said: 

The fault o£ the age is a mad endeavor 

To leap to heights that were made to climb; 

By a burst of strength, or a thought that is clever, 
We plan to outwit and forestall time. 

"We scorn to wait for the things worth having; 

"We want high noon at the day's dim dawn; 
"We find no pleasure in toiling and saving, 

As our forefathers did in the good time gone. 



430 LITTLE AND BIG END OF LIFe's HOKN. 

We force our roses before their season 
To bloom and blossom that we may wear, 

And then we wonder and ask the reason 
Why perfect buds are so few and rai-e. 

To covet the prize, yet shrink from the winning — 
To thirst for glory, yet fear the fight — 

Why, what can it lead to at last but sinning. 
To mental languor and moral blight ? 

Better the old slow way of striving, 

And counting small gains when the year is done, 

Than to waste our forces all in contriving. 
And to grasp for pleasures we have not won. 

My young friends, read biography. Changing some- 
what the poet's language — 

Lives of great men best will teach us 
How to make our lives sublime. 

It is said that Alexander worshiped the memory of 
Achilles, making his life and deeds a constant study. 
He carried Homer's poems continually with him, that 
he might read, over and over, the description of his 
achievements. This made him the great warrior he 
was. Saul of Tarsus worshiped the Spirit of Jesus 
Christ, and carried his spotless moral character, his 
matchless words of wisdom, his towering philosophy, 
and his condescending kindness and sympathy, ever 
before his mind, his heart bursting with the ex- 
perimental consciousness of the fact that he pos- 
sessed a truth the knowledge of which would give 
every man who attained it not only joy and peace 
for time, but make him happy, the son of a King 
throughout all eternity. With such an example and 
with such a consciousness, is it any wonder that the 
proud Pharisee Saul became the humble Apostle 
Paul, the mighty soldier of the cross? Alexander's 



LITTLE AND BIG^ END OF LIEe's IIORX. 431 

model was imperfect, and the crown which he wore 
so gloriously was laid aside and placed by selfish 
hands upon amt)itious and unw^orthy heads when, at 
the early age of thirty-three, he died in Babylon. 
Not so with Paul, who, when he came to die, recog- 
nized that he was just ready to enter upon his glory, 
and standing, as it were, upon the very apex of time, 
looked back over the track and viewed himself in 
the neck of experience. He saw the bloody lash 
with which he had been scourged, the cruel stocks 
in which he had been fastened, the angry sea upon 
which he had been wrecked, the stones with which 
he had been beaten, the chains with which he had 
been bound, the dungeons into which he had been 
cast, his perils before persecuting Gentile courts, and 
his dangers in the midst of hostile Jewish brethren; 
yet amid it all he had come out victorious. Is it any 
wonder he said: "I have fought a good fight, I 
have finished my course, I have kept the faith?" 
Then turning his face in the other direction, God let 
him see his reward — an eternal " crown of rigJiteous- 
ness,^^ that he should wear for ten thousand times ten 
thousand years. Alexander wore his crown about 
fifteen or seventeen years. "What was all that com- 
pared to Paul's deathless and eternal honors? 

My friends, life's horn, after all, is but the begin- 
ning of the great and infinite existence which lives 
forever; and I believe that man in heaven itself will 
<3ontinue to broaden and grow and develop and ex- 
pand, reaching nearer and nearer continually to the 
perfection, wisdom, and likeness of his God. If this 
is so of heaven, the reverse must be true of hell. 

May God direct and guide us to enter aright " life's 
horn," and bring us out like Paul in the end! 
28 



BEAUTY A DUTY. 




><i><^ 

.- 



]N consulting many authors we shall find that 
W^ the definitions of beauty vary somewhat, 



according to taste, temperament, and vo- 
;^ cation. Michael Angelo, the great artist, 
says : " Beauty is the purgation of superflui- 
ties." The too philosophic Socrates declared: 
" Beauty is a short-lived tyranny." The emotional 
Keats wrote: ''A thing of beauty is a joy forever." 
The pious Bailey called it " the fringe on the gar- 
ment of the Lord." The musical Mendelssohn ob- 
served: " The essence of the beautiful is unity in va- 
riety." Halleck sadly said : " Beauty is the fading 
rainbow's pride." The corrupt Ovid called it " a 
frail good." "Beauty is truth, and truth is beauty," 
said another; and so we might multiply definitions. 

Again, different minds have conceived differently 
of beauty's power. Pope says : " Beauty draws us 
with a single hair." " To make happy," Avrote Steele, 
" is the empire of beauty." Shakespeare declares 
that "all orators are dumb when beauty pleadeth; " 
and again he says that "beauty provoketh thieves 
sooner than gold." Pascal observes : " If the nose of 
Cleopatra had been a little shorter, it would have 
changed the history of the world." Keats says: "It 
is the eternal law that first in beauty should be first 
(432) 



BEAUTY A DUTY. 433 

in might." Bartol declares that beauty is an " omni- 
present deity." Schiller exquisitely writes : " It is 
only through the morning gate of the beautiful that 
you can penetrate into the realm of knowledge." 

"With such conceptions of the nature and efficacy 
of the beautiful, I feel free to lay down the proposi- 
tion, ^'■Beauty is a duty; " and I desire especially to ap- 
ply the subject as the duty of woman — with such 
limitations, of course, as embrace the beautiful in the 
true and the good. "Woman's charm is her beauty, 
whether physical, mental, or moral. The quality does 
not so appropriately apply to man. Personally he 
would despise to be called beautiful, pretty, or nice. 
He does not object to the handsome, the splendid, or 
the grand; but he never enjoys the caricature of fem- 
inine qualities or accomplishments. The rugged, the 
picturesque, the sublime and lofty, suit him better. 
The massive frame, the Websterian brow, the rough- 
ly-chiselecf, yet classic, feature become him more; 
and what is physically true of him is indexical of his 
mental and moral mold. We prefer that sublimity 
and greatness in man which challenge our reverence, 
homage, and awe; but in woman that beauty and pa- 
thos which evoke our sympathy, admiration, and 
love. The peculiar characteristics in both have their 
peculiar enchantment; but, as in the objects of nat- 
ure, we are moved by them differently. The tower- 
ing peak, the storm-girt cloud, the hurtling thunder, 
the boundless prairie, the heaving ocean — all these 
inspire us with a wondrous awe, at a reverential dis- 
tance. The sweetness of the opening rose, the melo- 
dies of woodland warblers, the gambols of innocent 
children — these excite within us the w^armth and 
o-low of the beautiful; and our hearts are affection- 



■434: BEAUTY A DUTY. 

ately drawn about such scenes with the rapture of a 
tender entrancement. So, respectively, are we moved 
by the grand or the beautiful in the person, life, and 
character of individuals. In man the sublime char- 
acteristically affects us Avith homage and awe; in 
woman the beautiful entwines about our hearts a 
hundred chords of sympathy and love. 

In the very nature of things, then, my subject is 
applicable alone to woman. It is her singular prov- 
ince to be beautiful, and she has no right to be any 
thing else but the very impersonation of the beauti- 
ful. Corresponding with this first conception of my 
subject, I present here an ideal picture of a personally 
beautiful woman. She manifests the conscious mark 
of intellectual and moral strength clothing her well- 
proportioned and exquisitely chiseled features, which 
are also warmed and animated by a sweet and queenly 
expression. She has the air of independence and self- 
confidence, without immodesty or boldness; and she is 
not to be stigmatized with that doll-baby '■'■ 'prettif which 
is so often confounded with the beautiful, and which is 
generally the sign of effeminacy and weakness, having 
no force of mind or character. Of course we all have 
our ideals of physical beauty, and, having my own, I 
have here given my conception from the stand-point 
of harmony between the physical, mental, and moral. 

First of all, let me say that it is her duty to be 
'personally beautiful. Every personal attraction ex- 
cites the attention and interest of mankind, and such 
attraction should inspire its admiration and affection. 
This power of attraction is a force essential to wom- 
an's weakness, and it should be cultivated and util- 
ized as an element for good. All beauty is power, 
especially personal beauty, and nothing but insensi- 



BEAUTY A DUTY. 43T 

bility can escape its influence; nothing but depravity- 
can blight its charm. To some people the toad is as 
pretty as the rose, and to some beauty of person is 
but the lodestone to licentiousness. " Unto the pure 
all things are pure," and true love " thinketh no 
evil." To such only does the quality of the beauti- 
ful enhance and heighten the quality of the good, and 
hence there is nothing more eftective for good in the 
individual than the power of sacred and consecrated 
beauty. Its moral effect in the pure penetrates into 
the sublime, and the fair form and the beautiful face 
of a spotless and holy woman, moving amid the cir- 
cles and callings of social life — utilizing her powers 
and opportunities — is the most exquisite image of 
divine grace ever painted upon the vision of every 
true lover of nature and of nature's God. A sweet 
and lovely woman reminds us most of paradise and 
angels, and no mortal influence so educates and ele- 
vates us to the angelic and the heavenly as the godly 
life of a beautiful and fascinating woman. With her 
^e are wont to associate the angel of purity, love, and 
mercy; and the only being upon earth entitled to the 
<^laim of the angelic is the good and the beautiful 
woman. We never call a man an angel — except 
w^hen he resembles a Gabriel, a Michael, or a Lucifer 
— hoAvever splendid his form or majestic his mind; 
but beautiful and glorious woman always floats in 
our dreams and crosses our pathway, like one of that 
cherubic host which ministers humbly, but most 
SAveetly, around the great white throne. 

Personal beauty, therefore, is a possession, and may 
be an accomplishment of rare dignity and power; and 
it should be cultivated to the highest degree of per- 
fection as an art. There is no sin in beautiful dress, 



438 BEAUTY A DUTY. 



graceful figure and movement, elegant manner, the 
preservation of ruddy health, the cultivation of regu- 
lar habit and rational exercise, the avoidance of every 
form of dissipation or life which depreciates and de- 
stroys beauty. Do every thing to acquire personal 
charm, consistent with virtue and modesty, and ab- 
stain from every thing which would detract from that 
God-given grace which none but a woman can hope or 
need to possess. If necessary to supply physical de- 
ficiencies, there is no great sin in the appliance of 
artifice — provided no one is defrauded by the ruse. 
Cosmetics, capillary appendages, and artificial den- 
tistry are often valuable helps, when needed; and botlx 
young and old, good and bad, employ them to aid de- 
fective nature. It is our duty to help nature all we 
can, and were I a woman, I would try to be as beau- 
tiful as nature and art would enable me. "We all have 
the faculty of taste, and we are all more or less con- 
scious of the irresistible force of beauty. Upon this 
point, however, I wish to indulge in two important 
observations : 

1. Personal beauty is sure to fade away. In this 
respect the homely have the decided advantage. 

Beauty's but skin deep, 

And ugly's to the bone; 
Beauty fades away, 

But ugly holds its own. 

The rose and the lily must perish with each coming 
season, and their beauty and fragrance, however 
sweet, must vanish. Physical beauty, like all the 
fading glories of earth, is evanescent, and the only 
permanent effect of woman's fair young graces lies 
in that sweet odor of remembrance which a virtuous 
and pious beauty may leave behind it. Old age and 



BEAUTY A DUTY. 439 



decay come on apace, and all the personal charms we 
used to have are faded into wrinkled faces, gray hairs, 
and tottering forms. Even then the virtuous cultiva- 
tion of beauty, in the past, leaves its rich traceries, 
like the hand of art upon the crumbling column ; and, 
like the dew of Gideon's fleece, the sweet perfume of 
beautiful young womanhood will remain when the 
fleece of your graces is gone. The growth of years 
is tempered to change and decay, and we need not 
grow old or unseemly with regret, if beauty of per- 
son has been blended into the beauty of a life which 
can never fade away. Time, hallowed and utilized by 
good, is the cure of all our young vanities, and, like 
the shock of corn with its withered leaves and faded 
verdure, we ripen to the harvest of life's golden sum- 
mer, to bloom and fructuate again with immortal 
youth upon another shore. The time will come again 
when we shall exclaim, even of ourselves, if good: 

See truth, love, and mercy, in triumpli descending, 
And natiire all glowing in Eden's first bloom ; 

On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending, 
And beaiity immortal awakes from the tomb. 

True beauty shall live again. If good and true, we 
shall never mourn the past, and its losses of beauty 
and freshness are more than substituted by the ri- 
pened fruit and the amaranthine bloom which sup- 
plants the earthly flower. 

Cold in the grave the perished heart may lie. 
But that which warmed it once can never die. 

]S"evertheless, take care of your body and your beau- 
ty while you can. God gave them to you, and he 
will require them at your hands. You have no right 
to mar or waste them. It is your duty to cultivate 
and preserve them for ornament and use — more so 



440 BEAUTY A DUTY. 



than the roses in your garden. You are not to vain- 
ly idolize your personal beauty, nor lead others to do 
so, for it must die; and all idolatry is not only sin, 
but a sacrilegious perversion of the use of Avhat we 
possess. 

2. ]^ot only does personal beauty fade away, but it 
is often a dangerous and deadly thing while it lives. 
" It is seldom," says Bacon, " that beautiful persons 
are otherwise of great virtue." " That which is strik- 
ing and beautiful," says another, " is not always 
good; " although the same author says, " That which 
is good is always beautiful." The Latin poet, Juve- 
nal, likewise said: "Rare is the union of beauty and 
virtue." Beauty is a power for evil as well as for good. 
It may be the charm of the serpent, as of the angel; 
and it may be by the serpent charmed into deadly 
vanity and ruin. JSTothing has ever fallen so often or 
so low as beauty; and nothing, once depraved and 
fallen, has ever been so vain, deceitful, and desper- 
ately wicked. Hence no beings are in so much dan- 
ger nor so dangerous as the beautiful. God's noblest 
gifts and graces, abused, become the devil's subtlest 
snare and his deadliest ruin; and the unlawful pride 
of beauty is certain to fall somewhere. Absalom was 
unfortunately and fascinatingly beautiful, and with 
the wiles and arts of his graces he stole the hearts 
of the people and dethroned his father. His luxuri- 
ant head of hair — one of the chief objects of his per- 
sonal vanity and attraction — finally helped to hold 
him, caught in the great oak on which he was killed 
upon the field of battle; and, like thousands before 
and since, the pet of his pride became the instrument 
of his destruction. Moses was beautiful, even in the 
sight of Grod; but his personal graces and the adu- 







(442) ■ Copyrighted- All rights reserved. 

BEAUTY A DUTY-INTELLECTUAL. 



BEAUTY A DUTY. 443 

lation of his admirers never turned his great head 
nor changed his great heai"t. It is a most unfortunate 
thing, generally, for a man to be beautiful. It almost 
invariably turns him into a dude or a villain. Hence 
God made most men ugly, and he has not made many 
women very pretty. Beauty, like diamonds, is a jew- 
el rarely found, and hence it is so highly appreciated 
when of the first water. 

Beautiful people should be the best people in the 
world. The licentious are ever on the watch for un- 
suspecting beauty — like the bottled spider that weaves 
his web for the silly fly — and often behind a beautiful 
face there is nothing but an empty head and a soul- 
less heart. There are those whose trade is to drag 
doAvn angels, and there is nothing the lecherous vam- 
pire feasts upon so wolfishly as the blood of vanity. 
The fair and exquisite floAvers which bloom and fade 
amid the gay and giddy gardens of fashionable and 
vicious society are oftenest plucked by the ruthless 
red hand of lust. Beauty is often a victimizer, but 
it is oftenest victimized. As an angel of light, it 
sometimes drags down the giant; but more frequent- 
ly still the serpent blights its charms and poisons its 
fragrance, as it sleeps amid the perfumed rose-beds 
of vanity's dreamy indulgence. Cultivate your beau- 
ty, however beautiful, as a power for good; but re- 
member that it is a power for evil and that it is the 
commonest snare to ruin. 

We introduce as the illustration of intellectual 
beauty the Hon. Mrs. IN'orton, an English authoress, 
the Avriter of the celebrated poem, " Bingen on 
the Khine." Her magnificent face and jjhjsique, to- 
gether Avith the mark of her intellectual endowments, 
make her the model and symbol, par excellence^ of in- 



444 BEAUTY A DUTY. 



tellectual beauty, and I place her picture before the 
young reader, especially as the inspiration of our ris- 
ing female genius in the South, But few of our in- 
tellectual women can ever hope to enjoy the personal 
splendor which Mrs. ]S'orton's picture would indicate; 
but, letting tlie symbol and impersonation mirror the 
intellectual excellence of female genius, the model 
can be subjectively if not objectively imitated. 

This brings us to another great consideration of 
this subject. Beauty is a duty from the stand-point 
of a higher and holier culture. Every woman is not 
personally beautiful. The purest and noblest of our 
female society are often but comely and passable — if 
not homely. Many of them are not personally beau- 
tiful at all, and it is often the case that nature cuts 
'her greatest freaks in putting the most brilliant minds 
and noblest hearts in the roughest caskets. The fin- 
est blooded stock sometimes look ill-proportioned, 
diminutive, and bony. The best milker or trotter is 
not always, if ever, the handsomest animal, and the 
nightingale and the mocking-bird are not so beauti- 
ful as the oriole or the bird of paradise with its gold- 
en plumage. Handsome cattle are often kept for 
show — or worse, for shambles. The excellent and the 
useful are judged by their virtues, and not by their 
external beauty alone. Some things are created for 
use only, some alone for ornament, and some for both 
ornament and use. The latter is true of woman, and, 
however personally attractive, she is capable by cult- 
ure of becoming just as beautiful as she is excellent 
and useful. lYith a polished brain, a pure heart, 
and a graceful demeanor, she may throw around her- 
self and her life a thousand charms to which the un- 
tutored beauty of nature is a stranger; for many of 



BEAUTY A DUTY. 445 

the most exquisite natural beauties are rendered 
graceless and charmless for the want of common 
sense and good training. Trite but true — 

Full many a flower is born to blusli unseen, 
And waste its sweetness on the desert air. 

People of true culture and taste are only attracted by 
refinement, and whatever is not refined or refinable 
will keep its lowly level, or seek it when raised above 
it. Unpolished, awkward, ill-mannered, senseless 
beauty — much more a vain and afifected beauty — can 
only attract the vulgar or the base. Such charms go 
for naught, like a jewel in the pig's snout; and yet 
by culture every such beauty could become an irre- 
sistible attraction. It is.said that " beauty unadorned 
is most adorned." This may be true so far as the ar- 
tificial trappings and trumpery are concerned, but 
there is nothing so beautiful or sublime in us that 
culture cannot improve. It is the province of art to 
bring out, as well as imitate, nature — to erase its de- 
fects and to supply its deficiencies; and so the science 
of culture has developed the moss from the brier- 
rose, the luscious garden strawberry from its little 
sour sedge-field ancestor. 

The province of education is, to those not possessed 
of physical graces, to take advantage of nature, and 
by culture make us forget personal defects in the 
fascinations of refinement. Brilliant brain, electric 
heart, elegant speech, graceful manner, modest de- 
portment, spotless virtue, beautiful character, useful 
life — these cover a multitude of physical wants and 
personal defects; and many persons who at first ap- 
pear uncomely to us grow beautiful by acquaintance 
and association. Intrinsic excellence, to be appre- 
ciated, must always grow by study — a fact not appli- 



446 BEAUTY A DUTY. 



cable to the merely external. The diamonds in the 
necklace of purity grow more dazzling, the light of 
the intellectual eye becomes more sparkling, the ala- 
baster of the modest face deepens to roseate, every 
feature and fashion of the noble spirit assumes more 
of the divine or the angelic, as we stand and study 
the forms of cultivated mental and moral beauty. 
What once seemed ugliness and deformity fades from 
the vision, and the developing beauty of the soul be- 
comes the mysterious absorbent or dissipation of 
physical imperfection. Virtuous refinement cannot 
admire the beautiful gossip, the accomplished flirt, 
the finished butterfly, the silken flounce which covers 
an ounce of brains in a bushel of nonsense and use- 
less attainments. Her mind, if she reads at all, is 
imbued only with novelty and romance; her fancy, 
if cultivated at all, floats alone amid the fictions of 
the play-house and the giddy dreams of the round 
dance; her tongue plays alone upon the chords of 
silly chatter, and her fair and exquisite form is 
decked and pampered ofl* only for the senseless and 
useless display of a frivolous, fashionable, and dissi- 
pated life — all, perhaps, under the tutorship and en- 
couragement of her foolish old mother, who has no 
higher conception of her daughter's destiny and dig- 
nity than to shine in so-called society! Her life is a 
phantom, and her hope is ashes. The beauty and 
glory of the belle oftenest diminish by study, as 
they fade into the thin air of an aimless and godless 
existence. It is the splendor of the soap-bubble and 
the froth and sparkle of the syllabub. God never 
created a beauty for such a x^nrpose and such an end; 
and how noble it is to the credit of those who, with- 
out the advantages of a beautiful nature, like artists, 



BEAUTY A DUTY. 447 



convert their blemishes into glories; who make us 
forget their defects by engrossing our admiration, 
and who by culture become the fascinating wonder of 
our study! 

Two things are essential to beauty as an effect, nat- 
ural or cultivated: magnetism of mind and force of 
character. These elements of beauty constitute the 
secret of power, and their absence, in the absence of 
natural graces or with them, puts us at a serious dis- 
advantage, from every influential stand-point. These 
elements of power, added to natural beauty, make it 
an irresistible fascination; and in the absence of the 
external, combined with the culture of the beautiful, 
they obliterate a thousand defects. Refined and ele- 
vated, we cannot resist them if we would, and we 
would not if we could. How far these innate bio- 
logical and moral forces are themselves subject to 
culture I know not, but they are the charm of the 
serpent in evil and the magnet of the angel in good. 
One of the most captivating women I ever knew pos- 
sessed these forces. She had an ill-proportioned nose, 
high cheek-bones, and a sallow complexion; but she 
had an intellectual and impassioned eye, an eloquent 
and musical voice, a brilliant and cultivated address, 
a graceful and easy manner, a magnetic will, a pol- 
ished education, and a pure heart. She loved the 
true, the beautiful, and the good, and she could hold 
you spell-bound in conversation. You felt as if you 
were in the atmosphere of flower-gardens, verdant 
lawns, and luxuriant groves — filled with music and 
refulgent with golden light and fiitting with angelic 
visions. At first she seemed homely and ugly, but 
she grew handsomer and lovelier by increasing ac- 
quaintance and contact. She had me en rapport and 
29 



M8 BEAUTY A DUTY. 



in rapture, and, after a little, she did not look ugly at 
all. The affections of those who studied and under- 
stood her best entwined about her as the ivy about 
the oak; and, by the way, this is the secret of so 
many happy and useful marriages among what we 
call ugly people. This lady illustrated the adage 
that '■'■heauty is as beauty does,^'' and what might be add- 
ed, as beauty thinks and beauty lives. She was what you 
might call a grand woman! I heard her husband 
once thank God that he had married her, and that no 
other man had happened to the good fortune of think- 
ing her as beautiful as he did. He was a man of 
great common sense and grand proportions. 

Occasionally young ladies mourn that they are not 
beautiful. They are not courted and flattered as oth- 
ers are, and they are disposed to think hard of God 
and nature for not doing a better i3art by them. They 
feel that their chances for marriage and social posi- 
tion are not so great. They should remember that 
tastes vary, as there are " many men of many minds,"^ 
and that men of sense are not governed by appear- 
ances simply. The ugliest people in the world get 
married, and the homeliest grace the finest circles of 
society. Elizabeth, the grandest of queens, was un- 
comely, and yet her mind — her magnetism and force 
of character — ruled with dignity and power the 
mightiest throne in Europe. In force and attrac- 
tion she was infinitely superior to the beautiful and 
accomplished Mary, Queen of Scots. She possessed 
imperial majesty, but she was too masculine to be 
loved. She was, nevertheless, a fine illustration of 
that power and fascination of mind and character 
which rises superior to all the merely external graces 
and endowments of beauty. The world never loves 






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BEAUTY A DUTY. 451 

the masculine in woman, but it admires queenly grace 
and power, and there never was a woman too ugly to 
win the hand and heart of the right man, if she had 
the elements of beauty and power in her soul, coupled 
with a fascinating culture and character. Most men 
are not anxious to marry many of our beauties — so- 
called; There is often too much reason to be afraid 
of them. The noblest men have been deceived, and 
the colossal and the Titanic have fallen prey to the 
deadly charms of voluptuous and deceitful beauty. 
David slew Goliath, but the beauty of Bathsheba put 
a stain upon his great character forever. Samson bore 
off the gates of Gaza, but Delilah bound him to ruin 
with a single hair of her head. Solomon's heart, it is 
said, was as deep as the sea, but woman found the 
bottom of it. Antony paid the glory of a world for the 
fascinations of Cleopatra. The beautiful but fickle 
Helen wrought the ruin of Priam's house and the 
desolation of classic Troy. 

As the highest type of a beautiful character you 
now behold the mother leading her child — with the 
rose and the lily, symbols of Jesus — up the shining 
pathway to the cross. On the right is the broad down- 
ward wajrto destruction, and the old serpent lies at 
the entrance ready to bite the feet of the little one just 
stepping upon the arena of responsible life. On the 
left is the thorny, winding road to the temple of fame 
and glory, representing worldliness. The path to the 
cross lies between, and the loving mother directing the 
feet of her little one to Christ and the Church is, to my 
mind, the sublimest picture of the beautiful, religious- 
ly and spiritually illustrated. Here beauty and duty 
blend in the loftiest and noblest work of life — leading, 
first of all, our little lambs to Jesus and the cross. 



452 BEAUTY A DUTY, 



Let me sa}^, in the third and last phice, therefore, 
that the cnltivation of the beantiful in woman does 
not consist in pedantry and affectation. Dress parade 
and the assnmption of airs, by a woman, are disgusting, 
hoAvever personally beautiful she may be. There is 
nothing like the blush of modesty, graceful address, 
gentle demeanor, the flash of intelligence, the radiant 
smile of virtue, the sparkling robe of character, the 
evidence of good breeding and culture. There must 
not be any thing shoddy in beauty. Thank God for 
what he has done for you, and then — like a sculptor 
with chisel in hand, with an angel vision, before his 
marble block — transform the crudities of nature into 
shapes of beauty about both soul and body. Make 
the most of your natural gifts and graces. Add to 
that which is good, subtract from that which is vi- 
cious, divide that which is superfluous, and mul- 
tiply the talents of virtue. You are nothing without 
beauty; but beauty without education is nothing. 
Your glory consists in the life of beauty — that beau- 
ty which is founded in the true, the good, and the 
useful. Shakespeare truly says, 

O how mucli more does beauty beauteous seem, 
By that sweet ornament which truth doth give! 

The rose is fair, but fairer we it deem 
For that sweet odor which doth in it live. 

Ruflini has said : " Beauty is an exquisite flower, and 
its perfume is virtue." Indeed, Shakespeare sums up 
the whole truth of the subject when he says: ^^ Virtue 
is beauty" Be beautiful, therefore, as you are good and 
true, and remember that the most beautiful garment 
a woman ever wore is the robe of true religion. A 
godly Avoman is the brightest gem in the Saviour's 
crown, and no angels have ever so blessed and beau- 



BEAUTY A DUTY. 453 

tified this blighted earth as the pious mothers and 
wives, daughters and sisters, who have spread their 
mantles of love and purity over the cradles of our 
childhood and over the struggles and sorrows of our 
manhood. ]S'o woman is truly beautiful without re- 
ligion. Whatever her fascinations, an impious wom- 
an is an anomaly and a monster; and her every grace 
of nature and culture pales or blackens without the 
grace of God. The greatest women the world ever 
knew were the Marys and the Marthas, and somehow 
we always associate the beautiful and the good with 
their names. They are household titles, and there 
are more Marys and Marthas in the world than any 
other names. Rachel and Rebecca, Ruth and Esther, 
Phoebe and Dorcas have become more celebrated 
than Elizabeth or Josephine or Joan of 'Arc. Relig- 
ion was their crown and glory, and the beauty of 
their history and of their lives sweetens the centuries 
with an imperishable perfume. Mary was not so great 
as Jesus, but superstition reverences her, even to-day, 
as the mother and queen of heaven. 

Finally, young ladies, I leave my subject with you. 
Beauty is a duty. Cultivate it as a power for good. 
Without it, in its essential senses and forms, you are 
powerless for any of the objects of a good and glori- 
ous life. You cannot assume any characteristic or 
office of man and have the power of a woman. Men 
do not love men. Hence you can be and do nothing 
without being womanly, and you can wield no influ- 
ence without womanly beauty. Lost to beauty, you 
are lost to that sympathy, admiration, and love essen- 
tial to your usefulness and happiness. ^Nothing but 
beauty in woman can evoke love, and nothing but 
love can make you blessed or yield to your supremacy. 



454: BEAUTY A DUTY. 

When you come to die, may you look back upon 
home and country and Church sweetened with your 
beautiful, loving, and useful existence — not wasted in 
the desert air of obscurity, nor poisoned by the at- 
mosphere of an ill-spent career. Upon the tomb of 
each of you may there be written, with an angel's 
hand, the epitaph inscribed by Ben Jonson to a 
young lady: 

Beneath this stone doth lie 

As much of beauty as oould die, 

Which when alive did vigor give 

As much of virtue as could live. 




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